🔹 Feature: dotnetup
🔹 What It Does: Cross-platform, user-level .NET SDK and runtime version manager that reads your repo’s global.json and installs exactly the right versions.
What Is It Giving You:
✅ One dotnetup install and the Repo Just Works: Run it in a repo with a global.json and it acquires exactly the pinned SDK and runtimes. Bump the version in global.json, commit — every developer and CI runner picks up the change on their next dotnetup install.
✅ No Admin / Root Required: User-scoped install path on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No elevation, no MSI ceremony, no sudo. Works in locked-down corporate laptops and containerized CI runners.
✅ Multiple Runtimes Side-by-Side: Libraries that multi-target net8.0 / net9.0 / net10.0 can install and test against all three runtimes with a single SDK. Individual runtimes install without pulling a full SDK.
✅ Manifest-Tracked, Auditable, Auto-Cleaned: Everything installed is recorded per channel. Updates are auditable. Old versions get cleaned out automatically instead of piling up on disk forever.
✅ Real Command for Preview Channels: dotnetup sdk install preview — no more brittle shell snippets or hand-rolled URL fetching to grab a preview SDK for a build script.
✅ Native AOT + Signed: The tool itself is a fast, self-contained native binary with signed releases. Sensible for something whose job is to download and run other binaries.
✅ Same Tool the .NET Team Uses: The dotnet/sdk repo’s own main branch now uses dotnetup to bootstrap its build — solving the classic “you need an SDK to build the SDK” chicken-and-egg problem.
✅ Built for AI Agents and CI, Not Just Humans: Roadmap includes oneshot execution (dotnetup run
🌐 Repo: https://github.com/dotnet/sdk (dotnetup / dnup branch)
🌐 Overview: https://www.jocheojeda.com/2026/06/13/what-is-dotnetup-the-net-sdk-version-manager/
