I was under the impression that a class library cannot run on it's own but when i created a asp.net (framework) webapp using the template provided in visual studio i see that it's output type is class library. What is the reason for this and how this work opposed to a windows or console application which generate an .exe file?

CodePudding user response：

The output type of your ASP.NET Web App being a class library is normal, as ASP.NET Web Apps run on a web server, not as standalone applications. The class library acts as a module that the web server can use to handle incoming HTTP requests and return responses to the client. The .exe file is not needed because the web server handles the execution of the code.