c# - Asp.Net Core 2.0-2.2 Kestrel not serving static content

Question

When running a Asp.Net Core 2.0 (or 2.2) app using IIS express, static files (css, js) are served as expected. However when using command line/Kestrel via "dotnet publish -o [targetDirectory]" and dotnet [website.dll], Kestrel does not serve up any static content. Utilizing browser F12, I see Kestrel returns a 404 error. Looking closer, when entering the file path directly in the browser (localhost:5000/css/cssfile.css) the file is not displayed but the browser appears to redirect to "localhost:5000/cssfile.css" but still returns a 404 error (note the missing /css/ directory).

I created this project via Visual Studio 2017, and chose the defaults for a new MVC Core 2.0 application (SDK was installed).

I have followed the steps here to enable static files in the program.cs and startup.cs files. These implement "app.UseStaticFiles();" and ".UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())". None of the articles found via google seem to help. I have verified dotnet copied the static content to the target directory.

What am I missing? Thanks

// Program.cs
public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args) => WebHost
   .CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
   .UseStartup<Startup>()
   .Build();

// Startup.cs
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error/HandleError");
    app.UseStaticFiles();

    app.UseMvc(routes =>
    {
        routes.MapRoute( name: "default", template: "{controller=User}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
    });
}

Answer 1

I tried so many useless things, this was the fix for me:

WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.UseKestrel()
.UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
.UseIISIntegration()
.UseStartup<Startup>()
.UseWebRoot("E:\xyz\wwwroot")
.UseUrls("http://localhost:5050")
    .Build();

Serving static files started working as soon as I added:

.UseWebRoot("E:\xyz\wwwroot")

_{I got a conflict on one of my services running on port 5000, so I specified to start on port 5050.}

---

Update for .Net Core 2.2

For .NET Core 2.2, the following works: .UseWebRoot("wwwroot")

However, a more readable and explicit approach to get the path:

static string webRoot = Path.Combine(AppContext.BaseDirectory, "wwwroot");

and then UseWebRoot(webRoot);