`dotnet watch` removes console color

[zbecknell]

Describe the bug

Whatever changed with how the console output is redirected in preview 8 causes the colors and extra logging to go missing. The below output compares running dotnet run and dotnet watch run:

To Reproduce

Create a new blank hosted project:

dotnet new blazorwasm --hosted

Then run both dotnet run and dotnet watch run on the Server project. Notice there are no colors with watch as well as less output.

For example, I can add this to the WeatherForecastController.Get() method:

_logger.LogWarning("Hope it's not too hot!");

Now view the difference in output when navigating to the Fetch Data page:

Further technical details

• Include the output of dotnet --info

.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   5.0.100-preview.8.20417.9
 Commit:    fc62663a35

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.19041
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.100-preview.8.20417.9\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 5.0.0-preview.8.20407.11
  Commit:  bf456654f9

.NET SDKs installed:
  3.1.103 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.202 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.401 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  5.0.100-preview.8.20417.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.0-preview.7.20365.19 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.0-preview.8.20414.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.21 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.0-preview.7.20364.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.0-preview.8.20407.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.7 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.0-preview.7.20366.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.0-preview.8.20411.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

To install additional .NET runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

• The IDE (VS / VS Code/ VS4Mac) you're running on, and it's version

Tested in Windows Terminal and VS Code terminal.

[zbecknell]

Here's the minimal repro: https://github.com/zbecknell/Preview8Repro

[zbecknell]

Also note: my other logging output destinations are still receiving entries just fine, so it's just the console that's affected.

Thanks for contacting us.
We're moving this issue to the Next sprint planning milestone for future evaluation / consideration. We will evaluate the request when we are planning the work for the next milestone. To learn more about what to expect next and how this issue will be handled you can read more about our triage process here.

[danlofquist]

Had the exactly the same issue, I managed to get it working, however a bit hacky.

In the LaunchSettings.json, set command name to something other than 'Project', that seems to mess it up. for example. "commandName": "ProjectX".

"Project" launches Kestrel but without a valid name it loads Kestrel anyway, you do get an error message but it still works. Seems to have something to do with Kestrel launch.
Or you can set the log level in the environment variables in the same file.

     "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development",
        "logging__loglevel__microsoft_aspnetcore_hosting" : "Information"
      }

[zbecknell]

@danlofquist Thanks for this workaround! Note that it does disable browser auto-launch and auto-reload when using dotnet watch, but I'd still rather have proper logging in most instances.

[zbecknell]

As of 5.0.0-rc2 we now have all logged items showing in the console (the most important part!), but the color is still missing.

I'm going to edit the title to reflect this improvement.

[danlofquist]

As of 5.0.0-rc2 we now have all logged items showing in the console (the most important part!), but the color is still missing.

It seems to work now, at least on Mac!

[xshaheen]

Same problem here dotnet run works correctly with colors but dotnet watch run work with no colors.
If I user @danlofquist workaround I lost the configured port and environment variables in the launch profile and the browser will not launch.

.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
Version: 5.0.100
Commit: 5044b93

Runtime Environment:
OS Name: Windows
OS Version: 10.0.19042
OS Platform: Windows
RID: win10-x64
Base Path: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.100\

[ThomasOpiolka]

Same problem here dotnet run works with colors but dotnet watch run does not.

.NET SDK  (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   5.0.100
 Commit:    5044b93829

Runtime Environment::
 OS Name:     Mac OS X
 OS Version:  11.0
 OS Platform: Darwin
 RID:         osx.11.0-x64
 Base Path:   /usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk/5.0.100/

[kanadaj]

Same issue.

.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   5.0.100
 Commit:    5044b93829

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.19042
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.100\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 5.0.0
  Commit:  cf258a14b7

[kieranhoney]

I'm having exactly the same issue, this was working correctly before transitioning to .NET 5. Interestingly I have two projects in the solution, one for an ASP core API and another for a Blazor server application. I can see no difference between either configuration however when running 'dotnet watch run' the API outputs colour correctly, the Blazor application is only in black and white.

[lessing-dev]

I also had this problem with .NET 5. I found that the problem was a misconfiguration in my launchSettings.json.
The launchSettings.json uses the RootNamespace as the profile identifier and I had edited the RootNamespace in my .csproj file. All I had to do is make the profile name in the launchSettings.json equal to the RootNamespace property of the .csproj file and then it worked.