diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/build-dotnet.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/build-dotnet.nix
index c027e206b63b..3f023ff70757 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/build-dotnet.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/build-dotnet.nix
@@ -205,15 +205,6 @@ mkWrapper type (
         );
         targetPackages = lib.mapAttrs (_: map forceSDKEval) targetPackages;
         inherit runtime aspnetcore;
-
-        updateScript =
-          let
-            majorVersion = lib.concatStringsSep "." (lib.take 2 (lib.splitVersion version));
-          in
-          [
-            ./update.sh
-            majorVersion
-          ];
       }
     );
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh
index aff85a32ecad..116fed9c9aad 100755
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ update() {
         return 1
     fi
 
-    : ${output:="$(realpath "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"/$sem_version/releases.nix}
+    : ${output:="$(realpath "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")")"/../$sem_version/releases.nix}
     echo "Generating $output"
 
     # Make sure the x.y version is properly passed to .NET release metadata url.
@@ -413,6 +413,7 @@ in rec {
         )> "$result"
 
     nixfmt "$result"
+    mkdir -p "$(dirname -- "$output")"
     cp "$result" "$output"
     echo "Generated $output"
 }
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/default.nix
index 60b43dd7aef3..840196c9c895 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/default.nix
@@ -84,30 +84,29 @@ let
     // (
       let
         dotnet_6 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./6.0;
+          channel = "6.0";
           withVMR = false;
         };
 
         dotnet_7 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./7.0;
+          channel = "7.0";
           withVMR = false;
         };
 
         dotnet_8 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./8.0;
+          channel = "8.0";
         };
 
         dotnet_9 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./9.0;
+          channel = "9.0";
         };
 
         dotnet_10 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./10.0;
+          channel = "10.0";
         };
 
         dotnet_11 = callPackage ./dotnet.nix {
-          dir = ./11.0;
-          allowPrerelease = true;
+          channel = "11.0";
         };
       in
       lib.optionalAttrs config.allowAliases {
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/dotnet.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/dotnet.nix
index e223a926bf4d..b484ef3e3ef4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/dotnet.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/dotnet.nix
@@ -2,15 +2,15 @@
   config,
   callPackage,
   lib,
-  dir ? null,
-  releasesFile ? dir + "/releases.nix",
+  channel,
+  dir ? ./. + ("/" + channel),
   buildDotnetSdk,
   withVMR ? true,
   ...
 }@attrs:
 
 let
-  binary = buildDotnetSdk releasesFile;
+  binary = buildDotnetSdk (dir + "/releases.nix");
 
   sourcePackages = lib.optionalAttrs withVMR (callPackage ./source (attrs // { inherit binary; }));
 
@@ -18,5 +18,18 @@ let
     lib.optionalAttrs config.allowAliases binary
     // lib.mapAttrs' (k: v: lib.nameValuePair "${k}-bin" v) binary
     // sourcePackages;
+
+  suffix = lib.replaceStrings [ "." ] [ "_" ] channel;
+  sdkAttr = "sdk_${suffix}" + lib.optionalString (!withVMR) "-bin";
 in
 pkgs
+// {
+  ${sdkAttr} = pkgs.${sdkAttr}.overrideAttrs (prev: {
+    passthru = prev.passthru or { } // {
+      updateScript = [
+        ./update.sh
+        channel
+      ];
+    };
+  });
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/combine-deps.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/combine-deps.nix
similarity index 96%
rename from pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/combine-deps.nix
rename to pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/combine-deps.nix
index 0f60566aa43f..8e8886a953d9 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/combine-deps.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/combine-deps.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   list,
   baseRid,
   otherRids,
-  pkgs ? import ../../../.. { },
+  pkgs ? import ../../../../.. { },
 }:
 let
   inherit (pkgs) writeText;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/default.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/default.nix
index 7a9672da606d..88f33c851ac0 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/default.nix
@@ -4,12 +4,13 @@
   callPackage,
   lib,
   fetchurl,
-  dir ? null,
+  channel,
+  featureBand ? "1xx",
+  dir ? ../. + ("/" + channel),
   releaseManifestFile ? dir + "/release.json",
   releaseInfoFile ? dir + "/release-info.json",
   bootstrapSdkFile ? dir + "/bootstrap-sdk.nix",
   bootstrapSdk ? null,
-  allowPrerelease ? false,
   depsFile ? dir + "/deps.json",
   pkgsBuildHost,
   buildDotnetSdk,
@@ -22,22 +23,16 @@
 assert bootstrapSdk != null || bootstrapSdkFile != null;
 
 let
-  inherit (lib.importJSON releaseManifestFile)
-    sdkVersion
-    ;
-
   suffix =
     let
-      parts = lib.take 3 (lib.splitVersion sdkVersion);
-      patch = lib.elemAt parts 2;
-      band = lib.substring 0 (lib.stringLength patch - 2) patch;
+      parts = lib.splitVersion channel;
       major = lib.elemAt parts 0;
-      channel = lib.concatStringsSep "_" (lib.take 2 parts);
-      sdk = lib.concatStringsSep "_" (lib.replaceElemAt parts 2 "${band}xx");
+      sdk = lib.concatStringsSep "_" (parts ++ [ featureBand ]);
     in
     {
-      source = if band == "1" then major else sdk;
-      inherit major channel sdk;
+      source = if featureBand == "1xx" then major else sdk;
+      channel = lib.concatStringsSep "_" (lib.take 2 parts);
+      inherit major sdk;
     };
 
   releaseInfo = (lib.importJSON releaseInfoFile);
@@ -96,23 +91,7 @@ let
         inherit vmr fallbackTargetPackages;
       };
     in
-    lib.recurseIntoAttrs (
-      pkgs
-      // {
-        vmr = pkgs.vmr.overrideAttrs (old: {
-          passthru = old.passthru // {
-            updateScript = pkgsBuildHost.callPackage ./update.nix {
-              inherit
-                releaseManifestFile
-                releaseInfoFile
-                bootstrapSdkFile
-                allowPrerelease
-                ;
-            };
-          };
-        });
-      }
-    );
+    lib.recurseIntoAttrs pkgs;
 
   source =
     vmrPackages
@@ -222,6 +201,7 @@ in
         callPackage ./default.nix (
           attrs
           // {
+            inherit featureBand;
             dir = dir + "/${featureBand}";
             withBinary = false;
             bootstrapSdk = vmrPackages.sdk;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/packages.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/packages.nix
index d804fa7032bc..0b5f653c51ba 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/packages.nix
@@ -178,7 +178,11 @@ let
       '';
 
     passthru = {
-      inherit (vmr) icu targetRid hasILCompiler;
+      inherit (vmr)
+        icu
+        targetRid
+        hasILCompiler
+        ;
 
       inherit
         packages
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update-dotnet-vmr.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update-dotnet-vmr.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 7746fbb5a525..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update-dotnet-vmr.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,139 +0,0 @@
-#! @nix@/bin/nix-shell
-#! nix-shell -i @runtimeShell@ --pure @drv@ --keep UPDATE_NIX_ATTR_PATH
-set -euo pipefail
-
-tag=${1-}
-
-if [[ -n $tag ]]; then
-    query=$(cat <<EOF
-        map(
-            select(
-                (.tag_name == "$tag"))) |
-        first
-EOF
-    )
-else
-    query=$(cat <<EOF
-        map(
-            select(
-                @prereleaseExpr@
-                .draft == false and
-                (.tag_name | startswith("v@sdkVersionPrefix@")))) |
-        first
-EOF
-    )
-fi
-
-query="$query "$(cat <<EOF
-    | (
-        .tag_name,
-        (.assets |
-            .[] |
-            select(.name == "release.json") |
-            .browser_download_url),
-        (.assets |
-            .[] |
-            select(.name | endswith(".tar.gz.sig")) |
-            .browser_download_url))
-EOF
-)
-
-(
-    curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/dotnet/dotnet/releases | \
-    jq -er "$query" \
-) | (
-    read tagName
-    read releaseUrl
-    read sigUrl
-
-    # TMPDIR might be really long, which breaks gpg
-    tmp="$(TMPDIR=/tmp mktemp -d)"
-    trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
-
-    cd "$tmp"
-
-    curl -fsSL "$releaseUrl" -o release.json
-
-    if [[ -z $tag && "$tagName" == "@tag@" ]]; then
-        >&2 echo "release is already $tagName"
-        exit
-    fi
-
-    tarballUrl=https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet/archive/refs/tags/$tagName.tar.gz
-
-    mapfile -t prefetch < <(nix-prefetch-url --print-path "$tarballUrl")
-    tarballHash=$(nix-hash --to-sri --type sha256 "${prefetch[0]}")
-    tarball=${prefetch[1]}
-
-    # recent dotnet 10 releases don't have a signature for the github tarball
-    if [[ ! $sigUrl = */dotnet-source-* ]]; then
-      curl -fssL "$sigUrl" -o release.sig
-
-      (
-          export GNUPGHOME=$PWD/.gnupg
-          mkdir -m 700 -p $GNUPGHOME
-          trap 'gpgconf --kill all' EXIT
-          gpg --no-autostart --batch --import @releaseKey@
-          gpg --no-autostart --batch --verify release.sig "$tarball"
-      )
-    fi
-
-    tar --strip-components=1 --no-wildcards-match-slash --wildcards -xzf "$tarball" \*/eng/Versions.props \*/global.json \*/prep\*.sh
-    artifactsVersion=$(xq -r '.Project.PropertyGroup |
-        map(select(.PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsVersion))
-        | .[] | .PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsVersion' eng/Versions.props)
-
-    if [[ "$artifactsVersion" != "" ]]; then
-        artifactVar=$(grep ^defaultArtifactsRid= prep-source-build.sh)
-        eval "$artifactVar"
-
-        artifactsFile=Private.SourceBuilt.Artifacts.$artifactsVersion.$defaultArtifactsRid.tar.gz
-        artifactsUrl=@dotnetBuildUrl@/$artifactsFile
-
-        curl -fsSL "$artifactsUrl" --head || {
-          [[ $? == 22 ]]
-          artifactsUrl=https://ci.dot.net/public/source-build/$artifactsFile
-        }
-    else
-        artifactsUrl=$(xq -r '.Project.PropertyGroup |
-            map(select(.PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsUrl))
-            | .[] | .PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsUrl' eng/Versions.props)
-        artifactsUrl="${artifactsUrl/dotnetcli.azureedge.net/builds.dotnet.microsoft.com}"
-    fi
-
-    artifactsHash=$(nix-prefetch-url "$artifactsUrl")
-    artifactsHash=$(nix-hash --to-sri --type sha256 "$artifactsHash")
-
-    sdkVersion=$(jq -er .tools.dotnet global.json)
-
-    # below needs to be run in nixpkgs because toOutputPath uses relative paths
-    cd -
-
-    cp "$tmp"/release.json "@releaseManifestFile@"
-
-    jq --null-input \
-        --arg _0 "$tarballHash" \
-        --arg _1 "$artifactsUrl" \
-        --arg _2 "$artifactsHash" \
-        '{
-            "tarballHash": $_0,
-            "artifactsUrl": $_1,
-            "artifactsHash": $_2,
-        }' > "@releaseInfoFile@"
-
-    if [[ -n @bootstrapSdkFile@ ]]; then
-        updateSDK() {
-            @updateScript@ \
-                -o @bootstrapSdkFile@ --sdk "$1" >&2
-        }
-
-        updateSDK "$sdkVersion" || if [[ $? == 2 ]]; then
-            >&2 echo "WARNING: bootstrap sdk missing, attempting to bootstrap with self"
-            updateSDK "$(jq -er .sdkVersion "$tmp"/release.json)"
-        else
-            exit 1
-        fi
-    fi
-
-    $(nix-build -A $UPDATE_NIX_ATTR_PATH.fetch-deps --no-out-link) >&2
-)
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index d40c18bbcf08..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-{
-  stdenvNoCC,
-  lib,
-  fetchurl,
-  writeScript,
-  nix,
-  runtimeShell,
-  curl,
-  cacert,
-  jq,
-  yq,
-  gnupg,
-  replaceVarsWith,
-
-  releaseManifestFile,
-  releaseInfoFile,
-  bootstrapSdkFile,
-  allowPrerelease,
-}:
-
-let
-  inherit (lib.importJSON releaseManifestFile) channel tag sdkVersion;
-
-  # version including up to the sdk feature band
-  sdkVersionPrefix =
-    let
-      parts = lib.take 3 (lib.splitVersion sdkVersion);
-      patch = lib.elemAt parts 2;
-      band = lib.substring 0 (lib.stringLength patch - 2) patch;
-    in
-    lib.concatStringsSep "." (lib.replaceElemAt parts 2 band);
-
-  pkg = stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
-    name = "update-dotnet-vmr-env";
-
-    nativeBuildInputs = [
-      nix
-      curl
-      cacert
-      jq
-      yq
-      gnupg
-    ];
-  };
-
-  releaseKey = fetchurl {
-    url = "https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/release-key-2023.asc";
-    hash = "sha256-F668QB55md0GQvoG0jeA66Fb2RbrsRhFTzTbXIX3GUo=";
-  };
-
-  drv = builtins.unsafeDiscardOutputDependency pkg.drvPath;
-
-  toOutputPath =
-    path:
-    let
-      root = ../../../..;
-    in
-    lib.path.removePrefix root path;
-
-in
-replaceVarsWith {
-  src = ./update-dotnet-vmr.sh;
-
-  replacements = {
-    inherit
-      nix
-      runtimeShell
-      drv
-      sdkVersionPrefix
-      tag
-      releaseKey
-      ;
-    prereleaseExpr = lib.optionalString (!allowPrerelease) ".prerelease == false and";
-    dotnetBuildUrl =
-      "https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/"
-      + (
-        if lib.versionAtLeast channel "10" then "dotnet/source-build" else "source-built-artifacts/assets"
-      );
-    releaseManifestFile = toOutputPath releaseManifestFile;
-    releaseInfoFile = toOutputPath releaseInfoFile;
-    updateScript = lib.escapeShellArg (toOutputPath ./update.sh);
-    bootstrapSdkFile = lib.escapeShellArg (lib.mapNullable toOutputPath bootstrapSdkFile);
-  };
-
-  isExecutable = true;
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..fc78d31aab08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
+#!nix-shell -I nixpkgs=./. -i bash -p curl jq nix yq gnupg
+set -euo pipefail
+
+updateSdk() {
+    tag=${1-}
+
+    if [[ -n $tag ]]; then
+        query=$(cat <<EOF
+            map(
+                select(
+                    (.tag_name == "$tag"))) |
+            first
+EOF
+        )
+    else
+        sdkVersionPrefix=$channel.1
+
+        query=$(cat <<EOF
+            map(
+                select(
+                    .draft == false and
+                    (.tag_name | startswith("v$sdkVersionPrefix")))) |
+            first
+EOF
+        )
+    fi
+
+    query="$query "$(cat <<EOF
+        | (
+            .tag_name,
+            (.assets |
+
+      .[] |
+                select(.name == "release.json") |
+                .browser_download_url),
+            (.assets |
+                .[] |
+                select(.name | endswith(".tar.gz.sig")) |
+                .browser_download_url))
+EOF
+    )
+
+    (
+        curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/dotnet/dotnet/releases | \
+        jq -er "$query" \
+    ) | (
+        read tagName
+        read releaseUrl
+        read sigUrl
+
+        release=${tagName#*.*.}
+        band=${release:0:1}xx
+
+        output="$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"/../"$channel"
+
+        if [[ $band != 1xx ]]; then
+          output+=/$band
+        fi
+
+        mkdir -p "$output"
+
+        [[ ! -e "$output"/release.json || $(jq -r .tag "$output"/release.json) != "$tagName" ]] || {
+            >&2 echo "release is already $tagName"
+            exit
+        }
+
+        # TMPDIR might be really long, which breaks gpg
+        tmp="$(TMPDIR=/tmp mktemp -d)"
+        trap 'rm -rf "$tmp"' EXIT
+
+        cd "$tmp"
+
+        curl -fsSL "$releaseUrl" -o release.json
+
+        tarballUrl=https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet/archive/refs/tags/$tagName.tar.gz
+
+        mapfile -t prefetch < <(nix-prefetch-url --print-path "$tarballUrl")
+        tarballHash=$(nix-hash --to-sri --type sha256 "${prefetch[0]}")
+        tarball=${prefetch[1]}
+
+        # recent dotnet 10 releases don't have a signature for the github tarball
+        if [[ ! $sigUrl = */dotnet-source-* ]]; then
+          curl -fssL "$sigUrl" -o release.sig
+          curl -fssLO https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/release-key-2023.asc
+          echo '17aebc401e7999dd0642fa06d23780eba15bd916ebb118454f34db5c85f7194a  release-key-2023.asc' |
+            sha256sum -c
+
+          (
+              export GNUPGHOME=$PWD/.gnupg
+              mkdir -m 700 -p $GNUPGHOME
+              trap 'gpgconf --kill all' EXIT
+              gpg --no-autostart --batch --import release-key-2023.asc
+              gpg --no-autostart --batch --verify release.sig "$tarball"
+          )
+        fi
+
+        tar --strip-components=1 --no-wildcards-match-slash --wildcards -xzf "$tarball" \*/eng/Versions.props \*/global.json \*/prep\*.sh
+        artifactsVersion=$(xq -r '.Project.PropertyGroup |
+            map(select(.PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsVersion))
+            | .[] | .PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsVersion' eng/Versions.props)
+
+        if [[ "$artifactsVersion" != "" ]]; then
+            artifactVar=$(grep ^defaultArtifactsRid= prep-source-build.sh)
+            eval "$artifactVar"
+
+            artifactsFile=Private.SourceBuilt.Artifacts.$artifactsVersion.$defaultArtifactsRid.tar.gz
+
+            dotnetBuildUrl=https://builds.dotnet.microsoft.com/
+
+            if [[ $major -ge 10 ]]; then
+                dotnetBuildUrl+=dotnet/source-build
+            else
+                dotnetBuildUrl+=source-built-artifacts/assets
+            fi
+
+            artifactsUrl=$dotnetBuildUrl/$artifactsFile
+
+            curl -fsSL "$artifactsUrl" --head || {
+              [[ $? == 22 ]]
+              artifactsUrl=https://ci.dot.net/public/source-build/$artifactsFile
+            }
+        else
+            artifactsUrl=$(xq -r '.Project.PropertyGroup |
+                map(select(.PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsUrl))
+                | .[] | .PrivateSourceBuiltArtifactsUrl' eng/Versions.props)
+            artifactsUrl="${artifactsUrl/dotnetcli.azureedge.net/builds.dotnet.microsoft.com}"
+        fi
+
+        artifactsHash=$(nix-prefetch-url "$artifactsUrl")
+        artifactsHash=$(nix-hash --to-sri --type sha256 "$artifactsHash")
+
+        sdkVersion=$(jq -er .tools.dotnet global.json)
+
+        # below needs to be run in nixpkgs because toOutputPath uses relative paths
+        cd -
+
+        cp "$tmp"/release.json "$output"
+
+        jq --null-input \
+            --arg _0 "$tarballHash" \
+            --arg _1 "$artifactsUrl" \
+            --arg _2 "$artifactsHash" \
+            '{
+                "tarballHash": $_0,
+                "artifactsUrl": $_1,
+                "artifactsHash": $_2,
+            }' > "$output"/release-info.json
+
+        if [[ $band == 1xx ]]; then
+            getBootstrap() {
+                pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh \
+                    -o "$output"/bootstrap-sdk.nix --sdk "$1" >&2
+            }
+
+            getBootstrap "$sdkVersion" || if [[ $? == 2 ]]; then
+                >&2 echo "WARNING: bootstrap sdk missing, attempting to bootstrap with self"
+                getBootstrap "$(jq -er .sdkVersion "$tmp"/release.json)"
+            else
+                exit 1
+            fi
+
+            $(nix-build -A dotnetCorePackages.dotnet_$major.vmr.fetch-deps --no-out-link) >&2
+        fi
+    )
+}
+
+while [ $# -gt 0 ]; do
+    channel="$1"
+    shift
+
+    major="${channel%.*}"
+
+    if [[ $major -lt 8 ]]; then
+        >&2 echo "dotnet $major has no vmr"
+        continue
+    fi
+
+    curl -fsSL https://dotnetcli.blob.core.windows.net/dotnet/release-metadata/"$channel"/releases.json |
+        jq -r '.releases[0].sdks.[] | .version' | {
+        while read sdk; do
+            if [[ $major -lt 10 && $sdk != *.*.1* ]]; then
+                >&2 echo "sdk $sdk has no vmr"
+                continue
+            fi
+
+            updateSdk v"$sdk"
+        done
+    }
+done
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/update.sh b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/update.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..408899d2da7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/update.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# shellcheck shell=bash
+
+set -Eeuo pipefail
+
+pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/binary/update.sh "$@"
+pkgs/development/compilers/dotnet/source/update.sh "$@"