dev_build_docs

extgen - Building extgen 🛠️

extgen is a C#/.NET console tool. To build it you only need .NET 9 SDK.

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✅ Requirements

• .NET SDK 9.x

  • Verify install:

    dotnet --version

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🚀 Build (Release)

From the repository root (or the folder containing the .sln / .csproj):

dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release

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▶️ Run locally

dotnet run -c Release -- --help

Example:

dotnet run -c Release -- --config ./config.json

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📦 Publish (self-contained binaries)

Publishing creates a distributable output folder under ./publish.

Windows (x64)

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish/win-x64

macOS (Apple Silicon)

dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-arm64 --self-contained true -o ./publish/osx-arm64

macOS (Intel)

dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish/osx-x64

Linux (x64)

dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained true -o ./publish/linux-x64

📝 If you prefer a smaller output and you’re okay requiring users to install .NET 9, set --self-contained false.

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✅ Quick sanity check

After build/publish, run:

extgen --help

Or:

extgen --init ./test_project

You should see config.json + extgen.schema.json generated in the folder.

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🧩 Building with Visual Studio

extgen can be built directly from Visual Studio on Windows.

Requirements

• Visual Studio 2022 (or newer)

• .NET 9 SDK installed

• Workloads:

  • ✔️ .NET desktop development

Steps

1. Open the solution file (extgen.sln) in Visual Studio

2. Select configuration:

   • Release (recommended) or Debug

3. Select platform:

   • Any CPU

4. Build:

   • Build → Build Solution
   • or press Ctrl + Shift + B

The output binaries will appear under:

bin/Release/net9.0/

You can also run the tool directly from Visual Studio:

• Set extgen as the startup project
• Press F5 or Ctrl + F5
• Add command-line arguments in Project → Properties → Debug

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🧩 Building with Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is fully supported and works great cross-platform.

Requirements

• VS Code

• .NET 9 SDK

• VS Code extensions:

  • 🧩 C# Dev Kit (recommended)
  • 🧩 .NET Install Tool (optional but helpful)

Steps

1. Open the repository folder in VS Code
2. Open a terminal (`Ctrl + ``)
3. Run:

dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release

To run:

dotnet run -- --help

🐞 Debugging in VS Code

• Open Program.cs
• Set a breakpoint
• Press F5
• VS Code will auto-generate a .vscode/launch.json on first run

You can pass arguments by editing:

"args": ["--config", "./config.json"]

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🌍 Cross-Platform Notes

• The same project builds on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• No platform-specific code is required to build extgen itself
• Console SDKs are not required to build extgen — only to build the generated CMake projects

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✨ Summary

• ✅ CLI build: dotnet build
• ✅ Visual Studio: open .sln and build
• ✅ VS Code: build & debug via dotnet
• ✅ Single dependency: .NET 9

extgen is intentionally boring to build — so you can focus on generating cool stuff 😄