Microsoft has released .NET Aspire 8.1, an update to the cloud-ready stack for building distributed applications that adds support for building container images from Dockerfiles, as well as support for launching Python-based services.
NET Aspire 8.1 was unveiled on July 23. Developers can find instructions on installing .NET Aspire at learn.microsoft.com.
For building containers, .NET Aspire 8.1 adds two extensions, AddDockerfile(...) and WithDockerfile(...), that allow .NET Aspire to automatically build a Dockerfile when the app host runs. This enables developers to quickly edit Dockerfiles and rely on .NET Aspire to build them without having to manually build these themselves, Microsoft said. In addition to Dockerfile build support, Microsoft has added the ability to provide build arguments and build secrets.
