Switch between dotnet core SDK versions

Question

I recently installed VS 2017 RC and then automatically my dotnet version pointed to 1.0.0-preview4-004233. Due to that whenever I create a new project using command dotnet new -t Console I cannot see project.json though I see .csproj file.

When I check dotnet versions available on my machine at - C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk I see multiple versions available.

Is there any way to switch dotnet core back to an earlier version - 1.0.0-preview2-003133 from 1.0.0-preview4-004233 without uninstalling.

Answer 1

You can do this with a global.json file in the root of your project:

• Verify the list of SDKs on your machine:

dotnet --list-sdks 

You'll see a list like this.

2.1.100 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 2.1.101 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 2.1.103 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 2.1.104 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] [...lines omitted...] 2.1.601 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 2.2.101 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 3.0.100-preview3-010431 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk] 

• Create a folder to be the root of your project, where you are going to run dotnet new.
• In that folder, run this command: dotnet new globaljson

The result will look something like this:

{   "sdk": {     "version": "3.0.100-preview3-010431"   } } 

• In version, replace the 3.0.100-preview3-010431 with the version you prefer from the --list-sdks list. For example:

{   "sdk": {     "version": "2.2.101"   } } 

• Run dotnet --version to verify. You should see:

2.2.101 

• Run the appropriate dotnet new commands to create your project.

Answer 2

Dotnet usually uses the latest SDK version, unless it finds a global.json file that tells it to do otherwise. The explanation by microsoft

dotnet looks for the file in the working directory (not necessarily the project or solution directory), and if it can't find one it starts searching upwards from there. documentation

An easy way to create a global.json file would be to run dotnet new globaljson --sdk-version 1.0.0-preview2-003133 in the directory of your project. create a global.json from the cli