Why is my web.config being overwritten when I publish?

Question

I'm using an ASP.NET Core 3.1 MVC website project.

web.config set the property Copy to Output Directory set to Do not copy .

Yet when I publish the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT is changed from Production to Development - why?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT is an environment variable, and it's set by your publish profile.

Environment variables in Core 3.1

See: For Windows IIS deployments: Include the property in the publish profile (.pubxml) or project file. This approach sets the environment in web.config when the project is published