My EF Code First migrations folder is huge and the publish project will take about 45 mins to complete. After executing the EF generated script on SQL, do I really need to include the Migrations folder while publishing? In other words, is it safe to exclude this folder and publish the project for deployment?

CodePudding user response：

It is generally safe to exclude the Migrations folder when publishing your project for deployment. The Migrations folder is only used by Entity Framework to manage the database schema, and it is not necessary for the operation of your application.

After executing the EF-generated script on your SQL server, the database schema should be up-to-date and you should not need to include the Migrations folder in your published project.

However, there are a few things to keep in mind when excluding the Migrations folder:

1. If you make any further changes to your Entity Framework model, you will need to generate a new migration and apply it to your database before deploying your updated application.
2. If you need to roll back to a previous version of your application, you will need to include the Migrations folder in order to apply the necessary database schema changes.
3. If you are using the Update-Database command in the Package Manager Console to apply database changes, you will need to include the Migrations folder in order for this command to work.

Overall, excluding the Migrations folder can help to reduce the size of your published project and improve the deployment process. However, you should be aware of the limitations and make sure that you have a plan in place for managing future database schema changes.