In ASP.NET Core, the application directory, *publish*, is comprised of application files, config files, static assets, packages, and the runtime (for self-contained apps). This is the same directory structure as previous versions of ASP.NET, where the entire application lives inside the web root directory.
| Framework-dependent Deployment | <ul><li>publish\*<ul><li>logs\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>refs\*</li><li>runtimes\*</li><li>Views\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>wwwroot\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>.dll files</li><li>myapp.deps.json</li><li>myapp.dll</li><li>myapp.pdb</li><li>myapp.PrecompiledViews.dll (if precompiling Razor Views)</li><li>myapp.PrecompiledViews.pdb (if precompiling Razor Views)</li><li>myapp.runtimeconfig.json</li><li>web.config (if included in publishOptions)</li></ul></li></ul> |
| Self-contained Deployment | <ul><li>publish\*<ul><li>logs\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>refs\*</li><li>Views\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>wwwroot\* (if included in publishOptions)</li><li>.dll files</li><li>myapp.deps.json</li><li>myapp.exe</li><li>myapp.pdb</li><li>myapp.PrecompiledViews.dll (if precompiling Razor Views)</li><li>myapp.PrecompiledViews.pdb (if precompiling Razor Views)</li><li>myapp.runtimeconfig.json</li><li>web.config (if included in publishOptions)</li></ul></li></ul> |
The contents of the *publish* directory represents the *content root path*, also called the *application base path*, of the deployment. Whatever name is given to the *publish* directory in the deployment, its location serves as the server's physical path to the hosted application. The *wwwroot* directory, if present, only contains static assets. The *logs* directory may be included in the deployment by creating it in the project and adding the `<Target>` element shown below to your *.csproj* file or by physically creating the directory on the server.
The first `<MakeDir>` element, which uses the `PublishDir` property, is used by the .NET Core CLI to determine the target location for the publish operation. The second `<MakeDir>` element, which uses the `PublishUrl` property, is used by Visual Studio to determine the target location. Visual Studio uses the `PublishUrl` property for compatibility with non-.NET Core projects.
The deployment directory requires Read/Execute permissions, while the *logs* directory requires Read/Write permissions. Additional directories where assets will be written require Read/Write permissions.
