What does the “-site” option for aspnet_regiis.exe do?

Question

I have searched everywhere and can't find any documentation on this. My guess is that it inherits maybe a machine key? Thanks in advance.

<MsDeploySourceManifest Include="runCommand">
  <path>C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis -pe "connectionStrings" -site $(DeployIisAppPath) -app "/"</path>
  <waitInterval>2000</waitInterval>
  <dontUseCommandExe>True</dontUseCommandExe>
  <successReturnCodes>0</successReturnCodes>
  <AdditionalProviderSettings>waitInterval;dontUseCommandExe;successReturnCodes</AdditionalProviderSettings>
</MsDeploySourceManifest>

Answer 1

-site is an optional argument to the -pe option. According to the executable:

[-site site-name-or-ID] The site of the virtual path specified in -app. If not specified, the default web site will be used.

This should correspond to a name of a site found in the "Sites" directory in IIS. As stated, if you don't specify this argument, it will default to using "Default Web Site":