Table of Contents

Automatically build and deploy your changes

Adapted from the original guide.

During development of your plugin, you may find yourself repeating a workflow similar to the following:

  1. Make a change to your plugin
  2. Run your build task (ex. dotnet build)
  3. Upload plugin DLLs to your server using an FTP client
  4. Alt-tab to the game
  5. Test your changes
  6. Repeat

Iterating on your plugin this way is painfully slow and impacts your productivity. Below, you will find a guide and recommendations on how to setup your dev environment to watch for file changes and automatically update plugin files on your server as you work. By following this guide, your new workflow should look like this:

  1. Make a change to your plugin
  2. Alt-tab to the game
  3. Test your changes
  4. Repeat
Caution

Exercise caution when developing your plugin while using this workflow. Build time errors are mostly caught by .NET SDK before files are committed but incomplete implementation may lead to issues such as server crashes. Avoid using this workflow on a production server meant for players.

Setup

1. Build plugin on file changes

The dotnet CLI, included with the .NET SDK, offers a convenient command for automatically watching for source file changes. If you have access to the dotnet CLI, run the following command to start watching your source code.

dotnet watch build --project path/to/projectName.csproj

By default, dotnet watch executes the dotnet run command on file changes so specifying build as the first argument is required.

Your plugin will now build automatically on file change. By default, your builds should be placed in bin/<config>/<framework> in the same directory as your .csproj.

projectDirectory
├── projectName.csproj
├── bin
│   └── Debug
│       └── net8.0
│           └── PLUGIN BUILDS HERE
Tip

You can have your plugin build to a more convenient location by setting the <OutDir> build property in your .csproj file. Example: <OutDir>./build/$(MSBuildProjectName)</OutDir>

2. Setup automatic uploads

Using WinSCP (Windows only)

Once connected to your server:

  1. Go to the Commands tab at the top of the WinSCP window and click Keep Remote Directory up to Date.
  2. Select the plugin build directory containing your DLLs.
  3. Select the plugin destination. (csgo/addons/counterstrikesharp/plugins/<projectName>)
  4. Click Start
Important

For WSL users: Applications running on Windows, such as WinSCP, cannot watch your Linux subsystem for file changes. Try using this workaround or consider moving development to Windows.

Using lsyncd (Linux)

TODO: in-depth guide for setting up lsyncd

Learn more about lsyncd: https://github.com/lsyncd/lsyncd

Using WinSCP while developing in WSL

Run the following watch command in place of the one mentioned in Step 1 to build to a directory in your Windows filesystem

dotnet watch build --project path/to/<projectName>.csproj --property:OutDir=/mnt/<drive-letter>/some/path/<projectName>`

and have WinSCP in Step 2 watch that path instead.

Learn about Windows filesystem mounts in WSL

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