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The word Host will repeatedly appear in the post so let's briefly understand what it means?
What is Host?
The Host is a container which offers rich built-in services such as Dependency Injection, Configuration, Logging, Host Services and others. The NET 6 offers Generic DefaultHost which can be configured to handle the activities as per your use case. Two major variations of the Host are:
- Console Host - CLI based applications.
- Web Host - Web API & Applications.
Think of it as Airbnb Host who keeps the property ready to serve when the guests arrive. The property offers a different set of services and allows you to bring your own services. The lifetime of such services depends upon the contract, which the Host controls.
var host = Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args) //WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.ConfigureLogging( (context, builder) => builder.AddConsole())
.Build(); // Build the host, as per configurations.
await host.RunAsync();
What is Hosted Service?
A service that performs the work in the background mostly does not offer an interface to interact. In technical terms, any reference type object which implements the IHostedService
interface is a background/hosted/worker service.
Terms such as Worker, Windows Service, and Background Task refer to HostedService based on context. In Windows Server, Widows Service is how you deploy a Hosted Service. Background Task or Hosted service runs as part of .NET Web Host, and it runs in the same operating system process.