The .NET Runtime

Overview

Your Cloud Function runs in an environment consisting of an operating system version plus add-on packages, language support, and the Functions Framework library that supports and invokes your function. This environment is identified by the language version, and is known as the runtime.

Cloud Functions supports the following .NET runtimes:

For information about runtimes in general, and to learn which Ubuntu version each .NET runtime uses, see the Cloud Functions execution environment.

To get started with .NET on Cloud Functions, see the Quickstart.

Template package

The template package helps you to create new functions. To use it:

  1. Install the .NET SDK.

  2. Install the template package:

    dotnet new install Google.Cloud.Functions.Templates

Templates are provided for the three kinds of functions in C# (the default), F#, and Visual Basic. When creating a new project from a template, specify -lang f# to create an F# project, or -lang vb to create a Visual Basic project. For more information, see:

Select a .NET Functions Framework version

Different versions of the .NET Functions Framework support different runtimes. Version 1 supports .NET Core 3.1 and above, with templates defaulting to .NET Core 3.1. Version 2 supports .NET 6 and above, with templates defaulting to .NET 6.

To upgrade an existing project using .NET Functions Framework version 1, simply edit the project file (or use Visual Studio) to update all dependencies that begin with Google.Cloud.Functions to the latest version, and set the target framework to .NET 6.

Select your runtime

You must specify a .NET runtime to run your function when you deploy it. This runtime you select should correspond to the target framework in your project file (MyFunction.csproj or similar). To specify your .NET runtime:

gcloud

If you're using the Google Cloud CLI, specify the runtime by using the --runtime parameter. The --entry-point flag specifies the fully qualified class name (FQN). For example:

gcloud functions deploy NAME --entry-point FQN --runtime dotnet6 --trigger-http

For more deployment parameters, see Deploy using the gcloud tool.

Console

If you're using the Google Cloud console, see the Google Cloud console quickstart for detailed instructions.

Function preparation

You can prepare a function directly from the Google Cloud console or write it on your local machine and upload it. To prepare your local machine for .NET development, see Setting up a .NET development environment.

The library that invokes your function is the .NET Functions Framework.

To get started quickly with .NET on Cloud Functions, see the Quickstart.

Source code structure

In order for Cloud Functions to find your function's definition, each runtime has certain structuring requirements for your source code. See Write Cloud Functions for more information.

Specifying dependencies

You can specify dependencies for your function by adding them to a project file. For more information, see Specifying dependencies in .NET.

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