Programming ASP.NET 3.5, 4th Edition

Local Deployment

Strictly speaking, all you need to do to deploy most .NET applications, including ASP.NET, is to copy the new files to the proper directories on the proper machine, overwriting any previous versions of files if they exist. This is referred to as XCOPY deployment.

XCOPY deployment is so simple as to cause experienced developers to ask, “Is that all there is to it?” It provides all the deployment benefits of .NET except for the ability to deploy assemblies globally (i.e., to use application code modules for multiple applications) and to precompile the application. To implement globally available code modules, you will use global deployment, described later in this section. We will cover precompilation scenarios of local deployment shortly.

Tip

XCOPY is a command-prompt command that originated in the DOS days and has been enhanced for use in modern networks. It is used to copy files and directories from one location to another. The basic syntax is:

XCOPY source destination switches

Both source and destination can be either filenames or directories. There is full support for wildcards. A multitude of switches are available that control such things as resetting (or not) the archive bit, copying (or not) any empty subdirectories, controlling the screen display during copying, and copying (or not) security information about the files. For a full list of the switches available, go to a command prompt and enter:

XCOPY /?

All command-prompt commands (known colloquially as DOS commands, ...