What is the use of preserveCompilationContext under build option in project.json in ASP.NET Core App?

Question

I am new to ASP.NET Core. I am trying to understand various options in project.json. But could not understand the meaning of preserveCompilationContext:true under build options in project.json. According to the microsoft documentation

it is described as follows:

preserveCompilationContext

Type: Boolean

true to preserve reference assemblies and other context data to allow for runtime compilation; otherwise, false

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

As far as I know, this is primarily used for Razor pages. They are compiled at runtime, and the compiler needs access to reference assemblies, to make sure it compiles correctly. So, to use Razor pages, you need to set preserveCompilationContext, which then includes all the necessary files in the published output.

If you don't need runtime compilation, you don't have to set preserveCompilationContext.