I am creating a nuget package from some code, but also need to deploy some tools with the package.
In a .nuspec file, I can do this with the <files> element, and this all works well.
However when using a .nuspec file, the packageReferences from the csproj file aren't included, and I am seeing some problems when including them manually (with the <dependencies> element).
The package created also always seems to restore as a .net framework package, even though it is targetting .net, as in this question.
I am hoping that all these problems would go away if I moved to using the .csproj format for specifying the nuget package details, but having read the docs I can't find out how to do it.
Does anyone know how it is done?
If not, can anyone shed any light on created a .net framework / .net core nuget package from a .nuspec file, that restores to the correct target version and respects package dependencies?
It's not easy to find/discover, but NuGet's MSBuild tasks docs page has a section called "including content in a package", which tells you about the PackagePath metadata on MSBuild items, that NuGet uses to copy files into the package.
So, in your csproj, you could have something like this:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="..\MyTool\Tool.exe" PackagePath="tools" Pack="true" />
</ItemGroup>
and then your package will contain tools\Tool.exe. The Pack="true" attribute is required for None elements.
You can use MSBuild's globbing to copy entire directories, if that's easier. Include="..\MyTool\*". My MSBuild skills are not so advanced, so I don't know how to glob ..\MyTool\**\*, which means all files in all subdirectories, while maintaining the correct directory layout in the PackagePath="???" metadata. So the best I can suggest is one glob per directory.
Related
I would like to change SpecificVersion to false for internally used NuGet packages.
I am using PackageReference and not packages.config, if that makes a difference.
While searching a solution for this topic, I have found those results
GitHub Nuget: https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/1380
Which states
In project.json (NuGet3) we are moving to a mode where NuGet does not touch the csproj file at all (where scenarios you are describing are partly the inspiration for the change).
I didn't manage to find the mentioned "project.json" file, where this could be possible? (Notice: the linked url is 7+ years old)
What can you do
You probably need to come up with a different way to define the
settings in your csproj file. Instead of putting them on the reference
that we know if going to change, we are going to use an msbuild
feature that lets you apply the settings to a reference.
You can go with the approach outlined by this SO post and use an
msbuild target.
I did try to read the linked StackOverflow post but frankly speaking I don't understand how this can be used for my scenario.
Also I found this:
Why is the NuGet Package Manager removing SpecificVersion False from the project file
Where it states
You would probably have to write a PowerShell script to fix up the references that are changed on updating.
But I seem to fail to understand where a powershell script should write the necessary changes to make SpecificVersion false?
As I mentioned at the beginning, I am talking about internally used NuGet packages, so if there is a solution revolving around defining something in the nuspec or in the csproj file that gets packed into a NuGet package this would also be a approach I can take.
Taking "whatever necessary steps" literally, you could explicitly reference the assemblies within the package instead of relying on PackageReference default behavior. This ties your csproj to the folder structure of the package, though.
It will also probably break anything the package does to the consumer's csproj with its own .props and .targets files.
I did not test this:
<!-- Define assets so that the package is basically ignored,
because we want to manually reference its assemblies. -->
<PackageReference Include="MyPackage.SomeWhere" PrivateAssets="all" IncludeAssets="none" GeneratePathProperty="true" />
<!-- Reference assemblies manually with the path property from above as base folder
Repeat for all assemblies in the package -->
<Reference Include="$(PkgMyPackage_SomeWhere)/lib/net461/SomeAssembly.dll" SpecificVersion="false" />
I want to run a local/internal NuGet repository. I think I've figured out how to "reuse" existing NuGet packages by including them in a dummy project using NuGet and scanning the package file to grab my locally-cached .nupkg files, but...
How do you create a nuget package (.nupkg) from a project, automatically including all dll dependencies and not just those grabbed via NuGet?
Specifically:
Create a solution
Add a new Project
Add references to various .dll files/other projects <-- this is the missing part
Add NuGet packages via package manager / cmdline / whatever
something automatically creates the .nupkg
From what I've found, you're supposed to do things like
manually edit your .csproj file to add <BuildPackage>true</BuildPackage> to include dependencies
manually create a .nuspec file and manually list your dependencies (similar ?)
manually run nuget pack on your .nuspec file
But everything is manual, which is stupid. Even the semi-automatic solutions are still awkward or half-manual:
Create .nuspec templates - doesn't seem to include dependencies, just metadata
nuget pack via build-event (step #5), which you need to add manually to every project, and it has its own quirks:
"$(SolutionDir).nuget\NuGet.exe" pack "$(ProjectPath)" -Properties Configuration=Release
move /Y *.nupkg "$(TargetDir)"
I'll settle for something that automatically creates a .nuspec manifest from project references. Then theoretically that + the nuget build-event can be rolled up into a build-project/nuget package, which is what I really want to see.
Your point #3 (Add references to various .dll files/other projects <-- this is the missing part) really contains two different issues: (1) add references to various dll files, and (2) add references to other projects in the same solution.
Number (2) here has gotten some added support as of NuGet 2.5. You can add an option to include references to other projects in the same solution when creating a NuGet package for a project:
nuget pack projectfile.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects
If projectfile.csproj references any other projects in your solution that also is exposed as NuGet packages, these projects' NuGet packages will be added as dependencies.
If it references projects in your solution that doesn't expose themselves as NuGet packages, their dlls will be included in this NuGet package.
As for (1), if you find yourself often adding dlls to your projects that aren't available as NuGet packages, you could just create your own (internal) NuGet packages with these files. If you then add these dlls as a NuGet package instead of the files directly, this NuGet package will be a dependency in your project's NuGet package.
I found a well-written article on this topic. I have the same issue with certain packages that have a hierarchy of dependencies and up until now I've been uploading each as a separate NuGet package (what. a. waste. of. time)
I've just tested the solution found here: https://dev.to/wabbbit/include-both-nuget-package-references-and-project-reference-dll-using-dotnet-pack-2d8p
And after examining the NuGet package using NuGet Package Explorer, the DLLs produced by referenced projects are indeed present. I'm going to test by actually submitting this package to NuGet and testing it.
Here's my source in case it is helpful to you: https://github.com/jchristn/NuGetPackTest
And the test NuGet package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/NuGetPackTest/1.0.0
The solution appears to work well. I don't know what it's going to look like when there are layers of references, I'm sure it could get really hairy and really fast.
.csproj from NuGetPackTest library which references project TestLibrary (portions removed for brevity)
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFrameworks>netstandard2.0;netcoreapp3.0;netcoreapp3.1;net461</TargetFrameworks>
...
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
<!-- added this line -->
<TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>$(TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput);CopyProjectReferencesToPackage</TargetsForTfmSpecificBuildOutput>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- modified this ProjectReference to include the children ReferenceOutputAssembly and IncludeAssets -->
<ProjectReference Include="..\TestLibrary\TestLibrary.csproj">
<ReferenceOutputAssembly>true</ReferenceOutputAssembly>
<IncludeAssets>TestLibrary.dll</IncludeAssets>
</ProjectReference>
</ItemGroup>
<!-- added this section -->
<Target DependsOnTargets="ResolveReferences" Name="CopyProjectReferencesToPackage">
<ItemGroup>
<BuildOutputInPackage Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths->WithMetadataValue('ReferenceSourceTarget', 'ProjectReference'))"/>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
</Project>
For other Googlers, you can use this if you are using the NuGet.targets file to run NuGet Pack:
<Target Name="PrePackage" BeforeTargets="BuildPackage">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildCommand>$(BuildCommand) -IncludeReferencedProjects</BuildCommand>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
Check this out!
The solution which I found is an extension for Visual Studio:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/fbe9b9b8-34ae-47b5-a751-cb71a16f7e96/view/Reviews
You simply add new project called NuGet Package:
Then you are adding interesting you projects to references and BOOOM !!
All dependencies and file directories are automatically added.
If you want to modify NuSpec data you click right at project and go to Properties,
then modify what you want.
Generated NuSpec and nupkg will be in folder obj of your new project.
I hope it helps ;).
I solved this for my case by adding the whole TargetDir to the nuget package.
Just add this to the .csproj :
<Target Name="IncludeAllFilesInTargetDir" AfterTargets="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="$(TargetDir)\**">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>tools</PackagePath>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
I would like to support backward compatibility in my application.
Simply saying - one app needs to work using different versions of a dll depending on a flag which the app get's during runtime.
I've simplified everything and created a test solution with 2 projects in it.
Each project has it's own version of the same nuget package.
I picked System.Drawing.Common cause it has no dependencies.
ClassLibrary1 contains System.Drawing.Common of version 4.5.0.
ClassLibrary2 contains System.Drawing.Common of version 6.0.0.
Both projects have same output path:
<OutputPath>..\DEBUG\</OutputPath>
When I build my solution I get just one System.Drawing.Common.dll in my output folder:
Cause both dlls have one name and only version is different.
The desired behavior on the pictures below:
Distribute the nuget package dependencies into different folders according to versions.
Add suffix to the nuget package dependencies according to versions.
The idea is in controlling output of the nuget package dependencies.
Do you have any idea how I can achieve that ?
P.S. all other logic - resolving dependencies according versions etc is out of scope of this question.
It's possible.
First you need to add GeneratePathProperty to PackageReference element in csproj file
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="System.Drawing.Common">
<Version>4.5.0</Version>
<GeneratePathProperty>true</GeneratePathProperty>
</PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
It allows us using $(PkgSystem_Drawing_Common) variable which contains a path to the nuget package.
Then we need to create a msbuild targets file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CopyNugetDll" BeforeTargets="BeforeCompile" Outputs="System.Drawing.Common.dll">
<XmlPeek XmlInputPath="$(ProjectPath)" Query="Project/ItemGroup/PackageReference[#Include='System.Drawing.Common']/Version/text()">
<Output TaskParameter="Result" PropertyName="NugetPackageVersion" />
</XmlPeek>
<ItemGroup>
<NugetrDll Include="$(PkgSystem_Drawing_Common)\lib\net461\System.Drawing.Common.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="Copying #(NugetrDll) to $(OutDir)" Importance="high" />
<Exec Command="copy $(PkgSystem_Drawing_Common)\lib\net461\System.Drawing.Common.dll $(OutDir)\System.Drawing.Common.$(NugetPackageVersion).dll" />
</Target>
</Project>
Here using xpath we select version from project.assets.json file and save it in NugetPackageVersion variable. Exec copy is used to copy the dll to a specific location with a specific prefix which contains a value from NugetPackageVersion variable.
Lastly you need to include msbuild targets file to a project
<Import Project="CopyDll.targets" />
This just isn't how package resolution works in .NET, you get one version of each package which is decided at restore time.
There may be some funky options if you have a very niche problem, but it sounds like maybe you're trying to solve a common problem in an uncommon way which is generally a bad idea.
Typically for the problem of backwards compatibility the onus is on the publisher of the library rather than the consumer of the library to make sure it all works by not making breaking API changes.
As i have tried to restructure the path using the ..\ in the csproj file after building the project
it still shows the error as stated after building the project here is the error below.
Also i have complete package for Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props as per the path which i have checked in the system where project resides, here is the path of the project below.
Now if I put ..\ or without it still won't find the path of the system here is the code after unloading the .csproj file below.
<Import Project="..\packages\Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.1.0.8\build\net45\Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.1.0.8\build\net45\Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.props')" />
<Import Project="..\packages\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.2.4.0\build\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props" Condition="Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.2.4.0\build\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props')" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
The missing file is
packages\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.2.4.0\build\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props
First, glad to know that you have solved your issue by yourself.
Actually, this target node is from a file packages\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.2.4.0\build\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props which is in your nuget package and it will add a target called EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports into your xxx.csproj file when you install Microsoft.Net.Compilers nuget package.
Besides, since you have changed the default <Error Condition="xxxx"> node under this target due to some reasons(maybe migrate this project from somewhere into your new agent), the nuget mechanism does not recognize it and when you want to uninstall this package, the node cannot be deleted automatically, it can only be modified manually.
In addition, the Error task in MSBuild is equivalent to interrupting the construction generation based on certain judgment conditions. Therefore, in your current environment, that is, if you cannot find the specified Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props file, you cannot build your project.
Suggestion
1) So to solve it, you can just edit the condition to the correct path of Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props as you did.
<Error Condition="!Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.2.4.0\build\Microsoft.Net.Compilers.props')" xxxx />
2) Or if your project has a lot of that, I suggest you could first delete these targets in xxx.csproj file and then run update-package -reinstall under Tools-->Nuget Package Manager-->Package Manager Console.
And this will reshape the nuget package according to the current environment and it can also fix DLL addresses that reference the wrong DLL and so on.
I'm working on a .NET Standard 2.0 project called ComputeSharp and I'm having some trouble creating a NuGet package from it. Some info:
The project only targets .NET Standard 2.0
The project uses 2 referenced projects in the same solution, each using some other NuGet packages. Here is a screen of my current solution.
One of the project, ComputeSharp.Shaders also references two .dll files, dxcompiler.dll and dxil.dll. These two are referenced by that project with the following snipped in its .csproj file. I made a PR to DotNetDxc with the update .dll files, so I'll no longer need to manually bundle the two .dll files into my project. So this is no longer an issue ✅
In the folder for the main ComputeSharp project, I also have a .nuspec file with the following structure, which also lists all the NuGet packages used by all 3 projects (note that the path for the *.mustache file goes up one directory because it's inside the ComputeSharp.Shaders project, and not the one from which I'm building the NuGet package, which is just ComputeSharp:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
<metadata>
<id>ComputeSharp</id>
...
<dependencies>
<dependency id="SharpDX.Direct3D12" version="4.2.1-beta0-gab36f12303" />
...
</dependencies>
<contentFiles>
<files include="..\ComputeSharp.Shaders\Renderer\Templates\*.mustache" buildAction="None" copyToOutput="true" />
</contentFiles>
</metadata>
</package>
In order to create the NuGet package, I first build ComputeSharp in Release mode, then open a cmd in the folder for that project, and run:
nuget pack ComputeSharp.csproj -Prop Configuration=Release -IncludeReferencedProjects
This does create a package that kinda looks ok. It contains the assemblies for all 3 projects, the two .dll files I use and the .mustache content file from the ComputeSharp.Shaders project.
Once uploaded to NuGet I can see the list of all the dependencies for the package, as you can see in this screen. So, that looks is ok as well.
PROBLEM: once I create a test project and install the NuGet package, I notice two things: first get this nice exception when I try to use any APIs, which makes me thing the other NuGet packages haven't been installed correctly at all, and then I can't find any of the APIs from either of those packages (eg. I don't see the SharpDX namespace at all), which makes me thing the previous point is probably correct. I have one last issue: the .mustache file (and relative parent folders) are not created in the build output directory, so I can't load it at runtime. I'm not sure why that is, since I did specify copyToOutputDirectory="true" in the .nuspec file.
I might be missing something obvious here, and I did check both the documentation and countless other SO questions on NuGet packages and whatnot, but I really couldn't figure out what I'm doing wrong here. I do have other NuGet packages uploaded, using the same method of including the referenced NuGet packages in the .nuspec file, and they work just fine when installed.
Thank you for your help!
EDIT #1: the indirect dependencies are now loaded correctly, so the last remaining issue is the content file not being copied to the build output directory (see changes above).
EDIT #2: closing this as it's too broad in scope, and the first part has been resolved already (.dll files and indirect package references). Opening a follow up question just for the issue about the content files not being copied here.