>dotnet-aspnet

dotnet-aspnet

Used to run ASP.NET Core applications on the .NET runtime in production environments.

dotnet-runtime

dotnet-sdk

mcr-dotnet

mono

What is dotnet-aspnet?

The dotnet-aspnet image is part of Microsoft’s official .NET container image set. It provides the .NET runtime and libraries needed to run ASP.NET Core applications, making it the recommended base image for deploying production web APIs, microservices, and web apps built with .NET.

Unlike the dotnet-sdk image, which includes compilers and build tools, the dotnet-aspnet image is optimized for running prebuilt applications. This separation allows teams to build applications in larger sdk images and run them in smaller, secure aspnet images.

Because it is published and maintained by Microsoft, the dotnet-aspnet image receives timely security patches and aligns with official .NET release cycles, including LTS (Long-Term Support) versions.

How to use this image

The dotnet-aspnet image is typically used as the base image in a multi-stage Dockerfile.

Examples:

# Build stage
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /app

# Runtime stage
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]

You can also run it directly to confirm the runtime:

<code>docker run --rm mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0 dotnet --info</code>

Image variants

The dotnet-aspnet image is published under mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet with several variants:

dotnet/aspnet:<major.minor>

Version-pinned images (e.g., dotnet/aspnet:8.0) tied to specific .NET releases. Recommended for production to ensure predictable behavior.

dotnet/aspnet:<major.minor>-alpine

Lightweight variant built on Alpine Linux, offering smaller image sizes but with musl libc instead of glibc.

dotnet/aspnet:latest

Tracks the most recent stable release. Useful for local testing or development but not recommended for production.

Interested in base images that start and stay clean?

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