You can build .NET Core either via the command line or by using Visual Studio. We currently only support building and running on Windows. Other platforms will come later.
Install Visual Studio 2013 Desktop Express with Update 3 or Visual Studio 2015 Community Preview.
Open a Visual Studio Command Prompt.
From the root of the repository, type build. This will build everything and run
the core tests for the project. Visual Studio Solution (.sln) files exist for
related groups of libraries. These can be loaded to build, debug and test inside
the Visual Studio IDE.
We use the OSS testing framework xUnit.net.
By default, the core tests are run as part of the build. Running the tests from
the command line is as simple as invoking build.cmd. A test report for the
build will be output on the console at the end of a successful build.
You can also run the tests from within Visual Studio. See this page for more details on how to install the xUnit.net runner for Visual Studio test runner and how you can invoke the tests using Test Explorer.
All .NET Core binaries are strong named. In order for us to enable you to build binaries that have a matching identity we leverage a mechanism called OSS signing.
OSS signing is essentially just delay signing the assembly except that the resulting assembly is marked as fully signed. This allows you to load the assembly in most contexts, or more precisely in any context that doesn't require validating the strong name identity. This means that you can't install OSS signed assemblies into the GAC nor can you use it in partial trust.
OSS signing allows you to produce binaries that match the strong name identity of the official binaries as released by Microsoft without having to add skip verification entries to your machine.
When running on the .NET Framework (desktop) we only support using OSS signed binaries for debugging and testing purposes. In other words, we don't guarantee that you can successfully load OSS signed assemblies in all scenarios that are required for production use.
However, in the context of ASP.NET Core and .NET Native on Windows we support loading OSS signed binaries in production. But keep in mind that Microsoft doesn't support the binaries themselves -- we only support the ability to load them.