Is there any way to create a .NET Core console application which can host a WebSocket server?
I see a lot of stuff but only for using with ASP.NET Core dependency injection.
The NuGet package I end up using must be .NET Core and not full .NET.
If I can use Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebSockets
in a console application, how would I do it?
Self-hosted ASP.net Core applications are in fact console applications, using Kestrel as the server you can run it in non-blocking and continue the program as a regular console one, something like this:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var host = new WebHostBuilder()
.UseKestrel()
.Build(); //Modify the building per your needs
host.Start(); //Start server non-blocking
//Regular console code
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine(Console.ReadLine());
}
}
The only downside of this is you will get some debug messages at the begining, but you can supress those with this modification:
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
ConsOut = Console.Out; //Save the reference to the old out value (The terminal)
Console.SetOut(new StreamWriter(Stream.Null)); //Remove console output
var host = new WebHostBuilder()
.UseKestrel()
.Build(); //Modify the building per your needs
host.Start(); //Start server non-blocking
Console.SetOut(ConsOut); //Restore output
//Regular console code
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine(Console.ReadLine());
}
}
Source about the console output.