dotnet build throwing nullreference exception - asp.net

Question

I have a project that builds and runs fine locally. However, it is failing to build when I push it up to my server (Windows Server 2012 R2). It does not give me any detail as to why it is failing. Even when I add the verbose flag.
PS C:\projectroot> dotnet -v build
Telemetry is: Enabled
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
I don't see anything in the event logs. Is there anywhere else I can look for error info to get this narrowed down? Any other ideas?
I suspect it may be some missing dependency since it works locally, but don't know where to look next to figure it out.
Here's a copy of my project.json. I tried several combinations of things before arriving at the workaround of building the projects individually.
{
"webroot": "wwwroot",
"userSecretsId": "secret",
"version": "1.0.0-*",
"dependencies": {
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core": "1.0.1",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.TagHelpers": "1.0.1",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.Cookies": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics.EntityFrameworkCore": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.1",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Abstractions": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Logging": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink.Loader": "14.0.0",
"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore": "1.0.1",
"AutoMapper": "4.1.1",
"MyApp.Domain": "1.0.0-*",
"MyApp.Configuration": "1.0.0-*",
"MyApp.Data": "1.0.0-*",
"MyApp.Data.EF6": "1.0.0-*",
"MyApp.Services": "1.0.0-*",
"MyApp.Services.ETL": "1.0.0-*",
"Scrutor": "1.3.1",
"System.Linq": "4.0.0",
"HtmlSanitizer": "3.2.105",
"Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.Core": "2.2.1",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.1",
"Microsoft.Extensions.Options.ConfigurationExtensions": "1.0.0",
"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design": {
"type": "build",
"version": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
},
"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools": {
"type": "build",
"version": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
}
},
"tools": {
"BundlerMinifier.Core": "2.0.238",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Razor.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final",
"Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final",
"Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools": "1.0.0-preview2-final"
},
"frameworks": {
"net461": {
}
},
"publishOptions": {
"include": [
"wwwroot",
"Views",
"Areas/**/Views/**/*.cshtml",
"web.config",
"config.json",
"logs",
"Aspose.Pdf.lic"
]
},
"scripts": {
"prepublish": [
"npm install",
"bower install",
"gulp clean",
"gulp min"
],
"postpublish": [ "dotnet publish-iis --publish-folder %publish:OutputPath% --framework %publish:FullTargetFramework%" ]
},
"buildOptions": {
"emitEntryPoint": true,
"preserveCompilationContext": true,
"compile": {
"exclude": [
"wwwroot",
"node_modules",
"bower_components"
]
}
},
"runtimeOptions": {
"configProperties": {
"System.GC.Server": true
}
}
}

Answer 1

Did you attempt to clean the project before running? Because the "cached" files when building in your own laptop/workstation might have been reused on the server.
In your project.json,
I noticed that you're using the 461 framework. Not sure if .NET Core uses that too because I've always been using this
"frameworks": {
"netcoreapp1.0": {
"imports": [
"dotnet5.6",
"portable-net45+win8"
]
}