nuspec is always generating placeholders template file - nuget

Question

I'm using NuGet tool in order to create a .nuspec using my .csproj.
The problem is always is generating me a file with a placeholders template:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
<metadata>
<id>$id$</id>
<version>$version$</version>
<title>$title$</title>
<authors>$author$</authors>
<owners>$author$</owners>
<licenseUrl>http://LICENSE_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</licenseUrl>
<projectUrl>http://PROJECT_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</projectUrl>
<iconUrl>http://ICON_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</iconUrl>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>$description$</description>
<releaseNotes>Summary of changes made in this release of the package.</releaseNotes>
<copyright>Copyright 2016</copyright>
<tags>Tag1 Tag2</tags>
</metadata>
</package>
I don't know why is dumping me the same content.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you look at the NuGet source code this is how it is currently implemented. It always adds those place holders.
You are supposed to replace them.
There is no way for the nuget.exe spec command to determine what they should be and it adds placeholders for values that you probably want to specify.

Answer 2

not sure if you've already answered this yourself, but I was thinking the same thing. I had some values in my AssemblyInfo.cs file and was baffled about why they weren't being injected into the .nuspec file. I think we were expecting the same thing: running nuget spec or nuget pack [csproj file] would generate a new nuspec file with the parameters injected.
Turns out Matt is exactly right, it's just not how it works.
The key answer is that actually, the values are injected into the package. Later, when you try importing the package you will find that the values from AssemblyInfo are correctly injected, according to this table. (Note also that some elements are NOT injectable this way!)
Personally I find it somewhat baffling why they would do that, where the .nuspec sometimes contains literals that totally comprise the file, while other times contains templating that must be processed to produce another 'true' nuspec file (that is internal to the .pkg and can't be easily read, mind you).
Cheers!