Including Entity Framework tooling in docker container

Question

I am using the aspnetcore docker image to run an ASP.NET Core application using EF Core. Running the application works, but I am unable to use any tooling.

Commands like dotnet ef database update fail.

Is it possible to run any DotNetCliToolReference tooling without the full SDK?

Answer 1

Is it possible to run any DotNetCliToolReference tooling without the full SDK?

No. The logic to execute these tools lives in the SDK.

But, if you run this with --verbose on a machine with the SDK you'll see a line that looks like this:

dotnet exec ... ef.dll ...

You can run that command inside the container.