How to get version of the installed nuget in MSBuild? - msbuild

Question

I have to show the user version-specific error message (what features would not work based on currently installed nuget version).
Is there a way to detect the version being used of a specific nuget package through MSBuild?
I know a way to search the filesystem for the DLL and detect the version, but this doesn't seem clean solution. Is there something out of the box?

Answer 1

There is a target usable for customisations like this that was previously part of the build in 1.* but is still around for compatibility: ResolvePackageDependencies.
You can use it in msbuild like this:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="12.*" />
<PackageReference Include="DasMulli.Win32.ServiceUtils" Version="*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="PrintPackageReferences" DependsOnTargets="RunResolvePackageDependencies">
<Message Text="Dependencies:%0A #(PackageDefinitions->'%(Name), Version: %(Version)', '%0A ')" Importance="High" />
</Target>
</Project>
Which (at the time of writing) produces:
> dotnet msbuild -restore -t:PrintPackageReferences -nologo
Restore completed in 14.56 ms for C:\demos\testcons\testcons.csproj.
Dependencies:
DasMulli.Win32.ServiceUtils, Version: 1.2.0
Newtonsoft.Json, Version: 12.0.2