>dotnet-runtime

dotnet-runtime

Used to run .NET applications with the .NET runtime, without build tools or SDK components.

dotnet-aspnet

dotnet-sdk

mcr-dotnet

mono

What is dotnet-runtime?

The dotnet-runtime image is part of Microsoft’s official .NET container image set. It contains only the .NET runtime and base libraries required to run prebuilt .NET applications. Unlike dotnet-sdk, it does not include compilers or build tools, and unlike dotnet-aspnet, it does not include the ASP.NET Core libraries.

This image is best suited for console applications, background workers, or services that do not require the ASP.NET Core framework. Because it is smaller and more focused than the SDK or ASP.NET images, it reduces the attack surface and improves startup time in production.

The image is maintained by Microsoft and follows the official .NET release cycle, including LTS (Long-Term Support) releases.

How to use this image

The dotnet-runtime image is typically used as the runtime stage 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 (no ASP.NET Core dependencies needed)
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:8.0
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /app .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "MyApp.dll"]

You can also run it directly to confirm the runtime version:

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

Image variants

The dotnet-runtime image is published under mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime and available in these forms:

dotnet/runtime:<major.minor>

Version-pinned images (e.g., dotnet/runtime:8.0) tied to specific .NET releases. Recommended for production deployments.

dotnet/runtime:<major.minor>-alpine

A lightweight variant built on Alpine Linux. Offers smaller size but uses musl libc instead of glibc, which may affect compatibility with some libraries.

dotnet/runtime:latest

Tracks the most recent stable runtime release. Useful for testing but not ideal for production due to potential version drift.

Interested in base images that start and stay clean?

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