Verify the ahead-of-time compiled dotnet CLI entry point #96

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1. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added

   enhancement

   on Sep 10, 2026
2. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added a parent issue on Sep 10, 2026

   • Build PostSharp with the .NET 11 SDK and Visual Studio 2027 #101
3. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added this to the 2027.0 milestone on Sep 25, 2026
4. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added

   Area-PlatformsTarget frameworks, SDKs, reference packs, languagesTarget frameworks, SDKs, reference packs, languages

   on Oct 2, 2026
5. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added this to PostSharp Developmenton Oct 8, 2026
6. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   added the

   User Story

   issue type on Oct 8, 2026
7. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   removed

   enhancement

   on Oct 10, 2026
8. gfraiteur commented on Oct 10, 2026

   

   Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   on Oct 10, 2026

   MemberAuthor

   More actions

   Result: no defect found

   Verified on 2026-10-10 against SDK 11.0.100-rc.1.26425.128 on Windows x64, with host tracing (COREHOST_TRACE). That SDK is the one the repository's global.json pins.

   Note: the analysis cited above, Documentation/DotNet11-CSharp15-Impact.md, does not exist in any branch of postsharp/PostSharp. These findings are recorded here instead.

   What the .NET 11 SDK changes (measured)

   • The SDK directory ships dotnet-aot.dll, a native library. It sits beside the managed dotnet.dll, dotnet.deps.json and dotnet.runtimeconfig.json, which are all still present.
   • The host loads dotnet-aot.dll ("Using AOT-ed SDK") for --version, --info, restore, msbuild and tool commands.
     • For the MSBuild-based commands, it then initializes the managed sdk/dotnet.dll in the same process.
     • It starts a .NET tool as a child process: dotnet.exe <tool>.dll.
   • The host answers --list-sdks, --list-runtimes, exec and dotnet <app>.dll itself, without the SDK. These do not change.
   • dotnet --version with an empty DOTNET_CLI_HOME writes only the version to standard output. No first-run text appears.

   PostSharp call sites

   Call site	Command	Result
   BuildClient	dotnet exec --roll-forward … PostSharp.Compiler.Hosting…dll	Host only, unchanged
   NetCoreResolver	--version	AOT entry point; output parses (measured)
   NetCoreResolver	--list-sdks, --list-runtimes	Host only, unchanged
   NetCoreResolver	reads <sdk>/dotnet.runtimeconfig.json	File present. This is the assumption most exposed to a future SDK, so it is now covered by a test (below)
   BuildToolsHelper	dotnet --roll-forward-on-no-candidate-fx 2 Unzipper.dll	Host app mode, unchanged
   BuildTimeDependencyRestorer	dotnet restore (child process)	AOT front end, then managed SDK; covered by CI
   NativeImageManager	dotnet msbuild (crossgen discovery)	AOT front end, then managed SDK; covered by CI
   MemoryThrottler	dotnet build-server shutdown --vbcscompiler --razor	Both options still accepted (measured)

   The postsharp .NET tool (measured)

   I installed the local build 2027.0.3.1152 in a tool manifest:

   • dotnet postsharp --help, dotnet tool run postsharp -- --help, dotnet postsharp version and dotnet postsharp telemetry --help all work through the AOT front end.
   • The front end starts the tool as dotnet.exe …/PostSharp.Tool.dll. It runs on runtime 10.0.12 (RollForward=Major).
   • Exit codes match a direct dotnet PostSharp.Tool.dll: 0 on success, -1 for an unknown command.
   • The tool states its process kind (ProcessKind.DotNetTool) instead of detecting it from the process name. Running under dotnet.exe in a child process therefore changes nothing for Backstage.
   • I did not run shutdown, kill or cleanup: they would have stopped the build servers of the machine.

   End to end (CI)

   All develop/2027.0 builds since 2026-09-25 use the SDK 11 RC1 that global.json pins (#93).

   • ReleaseCheckMinimalQualityRequirements 343403 (ab0b774e3e) and 343485 (600bd383d2) passed.
   • The cells of ReleaseRunAllNet110Tests 343374 passed. These include Linux x64 and Linux ARM64 (CrossPlatform). They exercise the dependency restore, dotnet exec of the compiler, tool extraction and ReadyToRun on SDK 11.
   • In ReleaseCheckAllQualityRequirements 343404, two cells failed for reasons unrelated to the CLI: a macOS agent failed to start, and the PostSharp.Patterns.Model backward-compatibility check failed.

   Inferred, not measured: I ran the host trace on Windows only. On Linux, the behaviour above is inferred from the green Linux cells.

   Regression guard

   postsharp/PostSharp#219 adds a test that runs NetCoreResolver against the installed CLI: --version, --list-sdks, --list-runtimes, and the runtime that dotnet.runtimeconfig.json selects. Until now, every resolver test faked the CLI. The new test passes locally against SDK 11 RC1.

   -- Claude for Gael
9. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

   closed this as completedon Oct 10, 2026
10. github-project-automation

    moved this from Backlog to Merged in PostSharp Developmenton Oct 10, 2026
11. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

    modified the milestones: 2027.0, 2027.0.4-preview on Oct 13, 2026
12. gfraiteur commented on Oct 14, 2026

    

    Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

    on Oct 14, 2026

    MemberAuthor

    More actions

    Released in PostSharp 2027.0.4-preview.

    -- Claude for Gael
13. Gaël Fraiteur (gfraiteur)

    moved this from Merged to Done in PostSharp Developmenton Oct 14, 2026