A Map of the dotnet CLI: SDK vs Runtime, the Command Families, global.json and SDK Version Selection
The dotnet command picks its SDK from the first global.json it finds walking up from the current folder; without rollForward it only moves within the same feature band, while runtimeconfig.json decides which runtime runs the app. We add projects to Bookstore.slnx with the CLI, compare the rollForward policies with three installed SDKs, and show the difference between the 10.0.1xx and 10.0.4xx bands, workloads and the .NET 11 CLI changes with real output.
15 Nov 2026
·
15 min
·
7
