How to compile a .NET application to native code?

Question

Let's say I want to run a .NET application on a machine where the .NET framework is not available; Is there any way to compile the application to native code?

Parallelepiped

Answer 1

Microsoft has an article describing how you can Compile MSIL to Native Code

You can use Ngen.

The Native Image Generator (Ngen.exe) is a tool that improves the performance of managed applications. Ngen.exe creates native images, which are files containing compiled processor-specific machine code, and installs them into the native image cache on the local computer. The runtime can use native images from the cache instead using the just-in-time (JIT) compiler to compile the original assembly.

Unfortunately, you still need the libraries from the framework in order to run your program. There's no feature that I know of with the MS .Net framework SDK that allows you to compile all the required files into a single executable

Acicular

I don't find any other reason to use this other than performances. The CLR code can still be read as before, and you still require .NET. So disappointing Microsoft didn't provide with a tool that would fix what I consider to be a big problem (anyone can view your high-level code as it is) – Homophonous

I do not agree with Espo. Because, the text in grey says the "Runtime" which means the CLR and thus the .NET Framework that comes into picture as rightly pointed by Chris. However, NGen point is true. The question is, without using CLR/Runtime/.NET Framework all are same. – Flickertail

It is time to get excited however, looks like the .net framework is finally getting a native compiler - msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/dotnetnative – Jarrell

ILMerge your .NET executable and everything in its dependency tree then Ngen if you want an executable independent of .NET. – January

Answer 2

As some of the other answers here have mentioned, you can use the .NET Native tool to compile your app to native machine code. Unlike those answers, however, I will explain how to do it.

Steps:

1. Install the dotnet CLI (command line interface) tool, which is part of the new .NET Core toolchain. We'll use this to compile our app; you can find a good article about it here.

2. Open up a shell prompt and cd to the directory of your app.

3. Type this:

   dotnet compile --native
   

That's it! When you're done, your app will be compiled down to a single binary, like this:

It'll be a standalone executable; no PDBs, assemblies, or config files included (hooray!).

---

Alternatively, if you want an even faster program, you can run this:

dotnet compile --native --cpp

That will optimize your program using the C++ code generator (as opposed to RyuJIT), so your app is even more optimized for AOT scenarios.

You can find more info on this at the dotnet CLI GitHub repo.

Timeserver

Note: this is only supported against projects built with .NET Core. (+1, though) – Dougie

You forgot the very important detail that .NET Native requires Windows 10. – Wynd

looks like not work with .net core 3.1 any updates ? – Daigle

dotnet compile is not available when I tried. Maybe dotnet build --self-contained is equivalent. – Bobbibobbie

--self-contained is not exactly the same: it does not compile to native code, nor does it compile to a single EXE, but it does include the .NET runtime in the build directory, so that it does not need to be installed separately. – Cloistral

Answer 3

RemoteSoft makes a tool that compiles a .NET application into a package that can be run without .NET installed. I don't have any experience with it:

RemoteSoft Salamander

Ironist

That's the only tool I've ever heard of that will do it without needing the framework. Of course, it costs $1249. – Graniela

I tried a couple of times over the past few years, to get information or evaluation, but they never return my emails about pricing or demos so I think their product may be a bit suspect. – Sully

Answer 4

I have tested several of them and at this moment the only one that supports .NET 3.5 and also has a great virtualization stack is Xenocode Postbuild

With ngen you still need to have the .NET framework installed but using a tool as such all your managed code is compiled into native code so you can deploy it to machines without the framework presence.

Mcmillan

Answer 5

Microsoft has announced its .NET Native Preview that will allow to run .NET applications without having the framework installed.

Take a look: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/04/02/announcing-net-native-preview.aspx

FAQ: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/dn642499.aspx

You can download Microsoft .NET Native for VS2013 from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/dotnetnative

Evers

Answer 6

Yes, using Ngen, the Native Image Generator. There are, however, a number of things you need to be aware of:

• You still need the CLR to run your executable.
• The CLR will not dynamically optimize your assemblies based on the environment it's run in (e.g. 486 vs. 586 vs. 686, etc.)

All in all, it's only worth using Ngen if you need to reduce the startup time of your application.

Knight

Answer 7

You can! However you're restricted to .NET 1.1 (no generics for you): Mono Ahead-Of-Time compilation (AOT)

However, this means compiling is really native, so you'll no longer be able to deploy one single bytecode assembly, you'll need one per platform.

It was originally designed because there's no .NET or Mono for iPhone, so that's how they made MonoTouch.

Vaunt

Answer 8

You can use NativeAOT (part of .NET 7, formerly CoreRT).

This technology is a bit limiting, since you cannot rely on reflection too much, but overall you can compile range of application with it. Web apps, WinForms apps, console apps.

As of .NET 7 Preview 5 you can just add

<PropertyGroup>
   <PublishAot>true</PublishAot>
</PropertyGroup>

If you want use daily builds of NativeAOT you need add following lines in your project file

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler" Version="8.0.0-*" />
</ItemGroup>

and add dotnet8 Nuget feed into your nuget.config like that

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
 <packageSources>
    <!--To inherit the global NuGet package sources remove the <clear/> line below -->
    <clear />
    <add key="dotnet-public" value="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet-public/nuget/v3/index.json" />
    <add key="dotnet8" value="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet8/nuget/v3/index.json" />
 </packageSources>
</configuration>

You can target .NET 6 apps, and with ILTrim improvements in .NET 6 the more and more code would be ready for native compilation.

For simple applications you can try use BFlat which may give you even better results.

Doyenne

ILCompiler is now available in nuget feed: nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.DotNet.ILCompiler – Dayton

Answer 9

You can do this using the new precompilation technology called .NET Native. Check it out here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vstudio/dotnetnative

Currently it is only available for Windows Store Apps. It performs single component linking. So .NET Framework libraries are statically linked into your app. Everything is compiled to native and IL assemblies are no longer deployed. Apps do not run against CLR but a stripped down, optimized runtime called Managed Runtime (Mrt.dll)

As stated above, NGEN used a mix compilation model and relied on IL and JIT for dynamic scenarios. .NET Native does not utilise JIT but it does support various dynamic scenarios. Code authors would need to utilize Runtime Directives to provide hints to the .NET Native compiler on the dynamic scenarios they wish to support.

Weig

+1 - I've been waiting years for this to happen. I hoped the world's infatuation with the "Virtual Machine" would run it's course sooner, but nonetheless, it is happening. I expect we are about to see a resurgence of native compilation. As you said, its for Window's Store Apps at the moment, but it is only a matter of time before the desktop market demands equal treatment. – Sully

Answer 10

You can use ngen.exe to generate a native image but you still have to distribute the original non-native code as well, and it still needs the framework installed on the target machine.

Which doesn't solve your problem, really.

Unwilled

Answer 11

2019 Answer: Use dotnet/corert. It can compile .NET Core projects into standalone .exe files. No dependencies (except for system libraries like kernel32.dll). I bet this is exactly what the OP need.

From its GitHub home page:

The CoreRT compiler can compile a managed .NET Core application into a native (architecture specific) single-file executable that is easy to deploy. It can also produce standalone dynamic or static libraries that can be consumed by applications written in other programming languages.

Aurangzeb

The repo is archived & superseded now. – Dipole

The new repo is called NativeAOT and is at github.com/dotnet/runtimelab/tree/feature/NativeAOT – Plaint

Answer 12

The nature of .NET is to be able to install apps that have been compiled to MSIL, then either by JIT or Ngen, MSIL is compiled to native code and stored locally in a cache. It was never intended on generating a true native .exe that can be run independently of the .NET framework.

Maybe there's some hack that does this, but it doesn't sound safe to me. There are too many dynamics that require the framework, such as: dynamic assembly loading, MSIL code generation, etc.

Quaggy

Answer 13

The main reason to compile into Native is to secure your codes, otherwise the MSIL compiled is like deploying the source codes in the client's machine.

NGEN compiles into native but also need to deploy IL codes, this purpose is just to reduce the startup time but it is also useless.

CoreRt is alpha version and working only with simple helloworld type apps.

.Net Core compiles into single executable files but it is also not native exe, this is just a zipped file of IL codes and it will unzip the codes into temp folder while running.

My simple question from Microsoft is, if RyuJIT can compile IL into native on the fly then why not you can compile the same IL ahead-of-time (AOT).

Babs

"CoreRt is alpha version and working only with simple helloworld type apps." This is not true - there are games on Steam (e.g. streets4rage.com) which are more complex than helloworld. – Plaint

But CoreRT cannot compile any Winform applications. I found another online compiler which can compile Winform application (dotnetnative.online) – Babs

Answer 14

Looks like net core RT workable solutions; soon all apps will go to .net core; https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/5262251/Generate-Native-Executable-from-NET-Core-3-1-Proje?msg=5753507#xx5753507xx https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2018/november/net-core-publishing-options-with-net-core

not tested maybe with old win .net sdk possible do similar.

Daigle

Answer 15

try this (http://www.dotnetnative.online/) to compile .net compiled exe into native exe, I tried this, its new but good.

Babs

Please post the content of the link in the answer. – Trulatrull

@RussJ uh, that's kinda impossible, considering it was a cloud app lol. It's also down, so it's irrelevant as of 2022. – Maag

Answer 16

I think it's not possible. You will need to distribute .NET FW as well. If you want to compile .NET app to native code, use NGen tool

Leniency