I am trying to build a NuGet package that includes native DLLs which are to be placed in the output folder when a project uses the package. I have tried to use the several suggestions from this question, but I am always running in the same problem.
My current NuGet package layout is like this:
\build
packageId.targets
file1.dll
file2.dll
\lib
\netstandard1.4
assembly.dll
The contents of packageId.targets is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<NativeLibs Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\*.dll"/>
<None Include="#(NativeLibs)" Link="$(RecursiveDir)$(Filename)$(Extension)">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
This should, according to the answers of the other questions, lead to my DLLs being placed in the bin\Debug directory of the project using the package. However, they are not. Instead, they are placed in bin\Debug\packages\packageId\build.
Now I have experimented a lot, and I noticed more and more strange behavior which I cannot make any sense of:
If I move the DLLs to the root of the NuGet package (like one answer suggests) and change the .targets file accordingly, they are not copied at all. There also is no error message.
If I change the .targets file to only reference file1.dll in both Include= and Link=, both files get copied anyway.
So I wondered if some policy just ignores the .targets file and copies whatever is in build to that path in the output folder, but when I remove the .targets file, the DLL files will not get copied anymore.
Now I understand even less what's happening.
What do I need to change to get the DLLs copied right into bin\Debug?
The new way to handle runtime-specific assents in NuGet is to use the runtimes folder to place native assets:
\lib
\netstandard2.0
ManagedWrapper.dll
\runtimes
\win-x86
\native
NativeThing.dll
\win-x64
\native
NativeThing.dll
\linux-x64
\native
libNativeThing.so
\osx-x64
\native
libNativeThing.dylib
If the package is consumed from a .NET Framework project, you may need to add a reference to the Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms package wich provides the runtime graph (runtimes.json) for NuGet to provide proper RID mappings if you don't use base RIDs (e.g. win10-x64 falls back to win-x64 resources).
Related
The title says it all. I have files that I want to nest during the installation of a NuGet package but can't use PowerShell scripts since they won't be run any longer (see here).
Are there any other ways to achieve this goal?
UPDATE: By nested I mean like *.resx and *.Designer.cs or *.xaml and code-behind files *.xaml.cs. I know I can achieve that by adding a <DependentUpon> element in the *.csproj file but I don't know how I can add that element without using PowerShell.
UPDATE2: init.ps1 runs the first time a package is installed in a solution. That won't cut it though. I would need the script to run when the package is installed into a project just like install.ps1 was run up to NuGet3.
UPDATE3: What I want to do is to add 3 files into the Properties folder of the target projects (Resources.resx, Resources.tt and Resources.Designer.cs). They are a replacement for the usual resources implementation. These files are installed by the nuget package when it is added to the project.
This is the part of the *.nuspec file that adds them to the Content folder of the package. As only one of them is actually content (the others being an Embedded Resource and Compile respectively) it would be nice to be able to set their build actions accordingly but one step at a time.
<files>
<file src="Properties\Resources.resx" target="content\Properties\Resources.resx" />
<file src="Properties\Resources.tt.pp" target="content\Properties\Resources.tt.pp" />
<file src="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" target="content\Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" />
</files>
As these files are added to the projects I want the nesting inside the *.csproj file and not happen via a separate *.props file if that is somehow possible.
Packages can add MSBuild items like this to a project by using a .props file in the package. It would contain the same content that you would put into the .csproj file.
The down side of this is that the content cannot be modified by the user. If you need to modify the user's actual project file and copy content to the project folder you would have to include a .targets file in your package and set BeforeTargets="Build" on your target. This would give you a chance to run before build and make changes as needed.
The build folder works for both packages.config and PackageReference (NETCore SDK) projects. You can find more out about it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/create-packages/creating-a-package#including-msbuild-props-and-targets-in-a-package
I have a nuget package with content that I want to be copied to the build output when users install my package. There is support for this: NuGet ContentFiles Demystified in NuGet v3.3. However, it only works in projects that use project.json. The contentFiles are not copied to my build output when I have a project that uses packages.config.
Is there an alternative or workaround I could use in order to make my NuGet package work on projects that use either a project.json or packages.config?
A quick search on StackOverflow reveals the following question which I think covers what you are asking for:
Set content files to "copy local : always" in a nuget package
You can put your files inside a Content directory inside the NuGet package.
In your .nuspec file:
<file src="css\mobile\*.css" target="content\css\mobile" />
When you install that into your project it will add the css\mobile directory to your project and the files inside that directory.
However that only adds the files to the project. In order to get them to be copied to your output directory you would either need to use a PowerShell script to modify the project item's copy local information.
An alternative, possibly a better way, would be to use a custom MSBuild .targets file. This will be added as an import to your project and then inside your .targets file you can add the files you want and specify the copy to output information directly as though it was part of your project. NuGet .nupkg file content:
\build
\Net45
\MyPackage.targets
\Foo.txt
MyPackage is the id of the NuGet package above.
Inside the .targets file you specify the files (e.g. Foo.txt).
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="Foo.txt">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
I'm wondering if I can suppress warning messages in the output from the nuget.exe pack command? Specific messages would be awesome, but I can live with suppressing all of them.
The nuget command line documentation mentions a Verbosity flag, but never really specifies what the valid values for that are. I've tried the following:
nuget pack mypackage.nuspec -Verbosity Quiet
But doesn't seem to do anything.
Here is an example of the nuspec I'm trying to pack:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2010/07/nuspec.xsd">
<metadata>
<id>MyPackage</id>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<authors>Administrator</authors>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>My package description.</description>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="mysourcepath\foo.dll" target="mytargetpath\foo.dll" />
</files>
</package>
The warning message I get is this:
WARNING: 1 issue(s) found with package 'MyPackage'.
Issue: Assembly outside lib folder.
Description: The assembly 'mytargetpath\foo.dll' is not inside the 'lib' folder and hence it won't be added as a reference when the package is installed into a project.
Solution: Move it into the 'lib' folder if it should be referenced.
I'm creating a nuget package that will be deployed as an application via an Octopus server. The assemblies in this dll do NOT need to be referenced by anything - this package should never be referenced as part of a build (we have other more logical packages for that).
I want to suppress this warning because the actual package I'm creating has thousands of files, none of which are in the lib folder. The output noise from this one warning is making it difficult to see any other legitimate warnings I might be interested in.
UPDATE: This package is packed from a custom nuspec file - it consists of the output of hundreds of projects, so specifying a project file is not a viable option for eliminating the warning. FWIW, specifying a project file does eliminate the warning, because it ends up putting the project output into a lib folder - which is what I'm trying to avoid.
TIA for any input.
First of all, nuget reference clearly specifies what the valid values are for Verbosity.In the link you have provided under the pack command section:
Display this amount of details in the output: normal, quiet, (v2.5) detailed.
Try packing your project file instead of .nuspec file if possible, use lowercase for quiet flag and use -NoPackageAnalysis:
nuget pack myproject.proj -Verbosity quiet -NoPackageAnalysis
The -nopackageanalysis flag will suppress the warning, even when using a .nuspec file.
You might also consider using Octopack, if it's an option. Octopack was designed to create packages specifically for Octopus Deploy (i.e., no lib folder, no spurious warning messages, etc.) It uses NuGet under the hood so you can still use it with a .nuspec file as well.
You can pass specific properties into the NuGet CLI, including "NoWarn":
nuget.exe pack package.nuspec -Properties NoWarn=NU5104
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/cli-reference/cli-ref-pack#suppressing-pack-warnings
I want to create a nuget package that contains besides .NET assemblies "legacy" DLLs (non .NET DLLs), which are referenced or accessed by the assembly DLLs.
Where do I put these DLLs? How does the users program (exe), which uses my package, get access to these DLLs?
I can only think of two ways the users program can access these DLLs: either there is a PATH environment variable set to the appropriate directory or these DLLs are copied into the bin/Release and bin/Debug directories of the users project.
How would I deal with x86 and x64 versions of the legacy DLLs?
I would look at adding a custom MSBuild .targets to your NuGet package. Inside this .targets file you can define any MSBuild tasks you need which will allow you to hook into the build of the project. So you could have the non-.NET dlls copied into the output directory using MSBuild.
The PostSharp NuGet package is one example that copies extra files around during the build. However its MSBuild .targets file is fairly complex. You would not need to do anything as complicated as that. Probably something simple similar to:
<PropertyGroup>
<PrepareForRunDependsOn>$(PrepareForRunDependsOn);MyPostBuildTarget</PrepareForRunDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ExtraFile Include="dlls\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="MyPostBuildTarget">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ExtraFile)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)" />
</Target>
The above is only an idea of what you could do.
I am using automatic package restore in NuGet v2.8.50506.491 with Visual Studio 2013.
I have added a build folder to my package with a {package ID}.props file. However, the file is apparently not being injected into the vcxproj at restore time. The package and all its content are being restored correctly but none of the definitions are visible in vcxproj properties. This may be expected if property injection occurs in memory, but the build fails due to paths that are clearly defined in the props not having been inherited.
If I add an explicit reference to the props file in my local packages repository, the project builds successfully, therefore there is no issue with the paths in props file.
I have also tried adding the props within a "native" subfolder under build, also to no avail.
An extract from the nuspec:
<file src="build\MyPackage.targets" target="build\MyPackage.targets" />
I have also tried a targets file instead of/as well as a props file, but this does not work either.
I should add that I have defined Nuget.config in the sln folder, with an absolute path to my packages repository:
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="C:\Packages" />
</config>
I was having this problem today, and eventually I realized that the names of my .nuspec and .targets files were different than the id of my package, which is apparently a problem. Renaming the .nuspec and .targets files to match the package id made NuGet start injecting into the vcxproj correctly. I'm not sure which of the two files was the problem, or if it was both, but it's working correctly now that all three names match.
Injection of .targets and .props file references happens only at the time when you install the NuGet package. This is the same as with .NET projects where assembly references are created only at package install time.
Later when you build the project the package restore mechanism merely downloads and extracts the NuGet package so that the previously "dangling" .target / .props / assembly references become valid references.