.NET Core Opinion #1 - Structuring a Repository

There are numerous benefits to the open source nature of .NET Core. One specific benefit is the ability to look at how teams organize folders, projects, and files. You’ll see common conventions in the layout across the official.NET Core and ASP.NET Core repositories.

Here’s a typical layout:

.
|-- src/
|-- test/
|-- <solution>.sln 

Applying conventions across multiple repositories makes it easier for developers to move between repositories. The first three conventions I look for in project I work on are:

1. A src folder, where all projects will live in sub-folders.
2. A test folder, where all unit test projects will live in sub-folders
3. A .sln file in the root of the repository (for Visual Studio environments)

Having a VS solution file in the root makes it easy for VS developers to clone a repo and open the file to get started. I'll also point out that these repository layout conventions existed in other ecosystems long before .NET Core came along.

In upcoming posts I’ll share some additional folders I like to see in every repository.