.NET Project Layout

A few years back, David Fowler (from the ASP.NET team) proposed a standard project layout for .NET projects. It has slowly been gathering popularity since then. I propose that the .NET community should rally around this layout and use it for all appropriate projects moving forward.

The proposed layout is as follows:

$/
  artifacts/
  build/
  docs/
  lib/
  packages/
  samples/
  src/
  tests/
  .editorconfig
  .gitignore
  .gitattributes
  build.cmd
  build.sh
  LICENSE
  NuGet.Config
  README.md
  {solution}.sln

The directories are used for the following purposes:

/src - The main projects / the product code.
/tests - The test projects.
/docs - Documentation files, help files, etc.
/samples - Sample projects, usage examples, etc.
/lib - Libraries (and similar) that can't ever exist in a nuget package.
/artifacts - Build output. Running the build scripts should generate artifacts here.
/build - Build scripts, etc.

When you're next deciding how to structure your .NET projects, please strongly consider using this layout.