The “dotnet ef” command is a part of the Entity Framework Core (EF Core) tooling in the .NET development framework. It allows developers to perform design-time development tasks related to EF Core, which is an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework for working with databases.
Here are some key aspects of the “dotnet ef” command:
- Migrations: One of the primary tasks performed with the “dotnet ef” command is managing database migrations. EF Core migrations enable you to create, apply, and manage changes to the database schema as your application evolves. You can use the “dotnet ef migrations” subcommand to create new migrations, apply migrations to the database, revert migrations, and generate SQL scripts for migrations.
- Database context: The “dotnet ef” command relies on a database context, which represents a connection to a specific database and provides an interface to query and manipulate data. You define your database context class within your application and use it with the “dotnet ef” command to perform various operations on the database.
- Database operations: With the “dotnet ef” command, you can perform various database operations, such as creating or dropping a database, generating a script for creating the database, listing pending migrations, updating the database to a specific migration, and seeding initial data.
- Scaffold database: The “dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold” subcommand allows you to generate entity classes and a database context based on an existing database. This feature saves time by automatically creating the necessary code to interact with the database based on its schema.
- Customizations: EF Core provides options for customizing the behavior of the “dotnet ef” command. You can specify connection strings, configure logging, define which database provider to use, and more, using command-line arguments or configuration files.
The “dotnet ef” command is a powerful tool for managing database-related tasks during the design-time development of applications using EF Core. It simplifies the management of database migrations, allows for easy interaction with the database, and provides efficient scaffolding capabilities.
Please note that the specifics of the “dotnet ef” command, such as available options or additional functionality, may vary depending on the version of EF Core or the tools you are using. For detailed and up-to-date information, it is recommended to refer to the official EF Core documentation or use the “–help” flag alongside the command to access the command-specific help information.
dotnet ef Command Examples
1. Update the database to a specified migration:
# dotnet ef database update migration
2. Drop the database:
# dotnet ef database drop
3. List available DbContext types:
# dotnet ef dbcontext list
4. Generate code for a DbContext and entity types for a database:
# dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold connection_string provider
5. Add a new migration:
# dotnet ef migrations add name
6. Remove the last migration, rolling back the code changes that were done for the latest migration:
# dotnet ef migrations remove
7. List available migrations:
# dotnet ef migrations list
8. Generate a SQL script from migrations range:
# dotnet ef migrations script from_migration to_migration