The idea is to have an application with a single file executable, despite the size, can be a very big file.
I'm using the "Single file deployment and executable" of .NET 6.0 with the following command:
publish {csproj.FullName} -c Release -r win-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true --self-contained true -p:IncludeAllContentForSelfExtract=true -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true
But when files are too big like greater then 4GB, I am not able to publish because of the following error:
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.100\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Publish.targets(898,5): error MSB4018: System.ArgumentException: Stream length minus starting position is too large to hold a PEImage. (Parameter 'peStream')
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.100\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Publish.targets(898,5): error MSB4018: at System.Reflection.Internal.StreamExtensions.GetAndValidateSize(Stream stream, Int32 size, String streamParameterName)
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.100\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.NET.Publish.targets(898,5): error MSB4018: at System.Reflection.PortableExecutable.PEReader..ctor(Stream peStream, PEStreamOptions options, Int32 size)
Any Idea how to fix it? Or another alternative to apply this idea.
After some research there is a limitation on C# that doesn't allow for a single file to be more than 4gb.
So the alternative that I've chosen is to use self-extracting zips.
The one that I've chosen is 7Zip. Using their SDK I am able to zip my files into a single file, and then create a self-extracting zip that has the .exe for the file execution and it works as expected!