The specified deps.json '$$$' does not exist

Question

I am rather new to the .NET Core, and I got a .NET Core WebAPI project MyWebApp,
also, i have .Net Core Class Library project MyLib using EntityFrameworkCore

When i try to use Add-Migration, i get the error
The specified deps.json [...\MyWebApp\bin\Debug\netcoreapp1.1\MyWebApp.deps.json] does not exist

Inspecting the folder, I noticed I have this a file in [...\MyWebApp\bin\Debug\netcoreapp1.1\win10-x64\MyWebApp.deps.json]

but i really can't figure what i am supposed to do to resolve this.

myWebApi project.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
  "ShopManager": "1.0.0-*",
  "Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.EnvironmentVariables": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.FileExtensions": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions": "1.1.0",
  "Microsoft.NETCore.App": "1.1.0"
  },

  "tools": {
    "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
  },
  "runtimes": {
    "win10-x64": ""
  },
  "frameworks": {
    "netcoreapp1.1": {
      "imports": [
        "dotnet5.6",
        "portable-net45+win8"
      ]
    }
  },

  "buildOptions": {
    "emitEntryPoint": true,
    "preserveCompilationContext": true
  },

  "runtimeOptions": {
    "configProperties": {
      "System.GC.Server": true
    }
  },

  "publishOptions": {
    "include": [
      "wwwroot",
      "Views",
      "Areas/**/Views",
      "appsettings.json",
      "web.config"
    ]
  },

  "scripts": {
    "postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
  }
}

Answer 1

runtimes section in project.json looks suspicious. As soon as you build for one runtime only - there is no need to use it.

Remove it and rewrite dependency from "Microsoft.NETCore.App":"1.1.0" to "Microsoft.NETCore.App": { "type": "platform", "version": "1.1.0" }.

This will change your app deployment model from "self-contained" (can run on specific platform even without framework) to "framework-dependent" (may run on any platform with framework installed). Details are here.

Answer 2

I had this issue with Visual Studio 2017, I copied all the files including the dll's from the bin\Debug\netcoreapp1.0 to the bin\MCD\Debug\netcoreapp1.0

The scaffolding wasn't working correctly until I copied the files in the bin folder. I am not sure what the MCD folder does but for some reason the scaffolding process looks in this folder.

Answer 3

I ran into this issue during a conference workshop today. After running dotnet ef database update -v to get verbose output and carefully inspecting the paths there were used, I discovered that I had an environment variable set on my Mac that was causing the issue.

If you have PROJECTDIR set inside your environment, the dotnet command may use this to resolve paths and if it does, it will most likely do it in an unexpected manner. Therefore, remove this environment variable from the shell/environment where you are doing your .Net core work.