Package Version not updating under VSTS Build and .NET Standard - msbuild

I'm building a .NET Standard component using VSTS-Build and GitVersion. And because its .NET Standard I'm having to use msbuild /t:pack instead of the nuget pack step.
This has resulted in the package version number always being 1.0.0 which I assume means that "PackageVersion" isn't being set. The GitVersion documentation says:
the following MSBuild properties are set when UpdateVersionProperties is true
but there doesn't appear to be an option for that.
Anyone know how to get this to work?
Project file:
I changed 2 things from a working build definition, I disabled the Nuget Pack step and I added "/t:pack" as an msbuild argument in the Visual Studio Build step.
Nuspec file.

You should set the GitVersion task ahead of MSBuild task. And it will generate nuget package version with 1.1.0. But it won't update the new version (1.1.0) in your source code, so when you build once again, you will always get the nuget package version 1.1.0.
And there has another way to generate nuget packages and specify package version as you need. Detail build definition as below:
.NET Core task with command restore: specify the path to .csproj.
.NET Core task with command build: specify the path to .csproj.
.NET Core task with command pack: specify the path to .csproj and the package version (/p:PackageVersion) as you need.
To use Gitversion variables for nuget package, you just need to add the argument /p:PackageVersion=$(GitVersion.Major).$(GitVersion.Minor).$(GitVersion.Patch) in .NET Core pack task.
The variables $(GitVersion.Major), $(GitVersion.Minor) and $(GitVersion.Patch) are auto generated after executing GitVersion task.

Related

Newer versions of NuGet.exe can't resolve framework match when restoring older packages (net40, netframework40)

having spent the better part of two days on this, time to get some help.
I am reworking our CI build, and have a VS2017 solution which was on .net 4.6.1, using packages.config style nuget refs, and TeamCity was using the NuGet runner v3.4.4 to restore the packages. It was originally build probably using VS2008 or 10, then converted to 2017 in 2018. Someone checked in the packages directory and it's been that way for years.
Time to bring it up to more modern standards. I converted the projects to use packageReference, and now am using msbuild and the restore;build target to restore my packages and build the solution. Works well EXCEPT for this one package.
Even in VisualStudio 2017 15.8.7, the build (which does the restore of course) is failing to restore the smtp-impostor package using a packageReference with the following error:
NU1202: Package smtp-impostor 2.0.8 is not compatible with net461 (.NETFramework,Version=v4.0). Package smtp-impostor 2.0.8 supports: netframework40 (.NetFramework 4.0,Version=v0.0)
I can't get Google to find a single useful post when searching for "netframework40".
If I use nuget3.4.4 CLI, it works fine (it seems to call msbuild 4.0). If I use nuget 5.6 CLI, I get the error message; it's using the msbuild that comes with Visual Studio 2017.
I see a lot of posts on how to get nuget to use a different version of msbuild, but I don't see how to tell msbuild to use an earlier version of nuget!
I have tried:
retargeting the solution to v4.0 - same error occurs - first part of error just changes to net40
setting the ToolsVersion in the csproj file tag to 14.0
Setting the PlatformToolsVersion property in the csproj file to 14.0.
No dice.
I really don't want to stay with packages.config for this project (and an extra CI build step) nor checkin the single DLL for the package into my repo. It's looking more like I'll jsut have to scrap the packageReference upgrade and stick with the old style nuget runner package restore.
Anyone ever seen this? Any ideas where "netframework40" comes from and why newer nuget can't match it with net40?
Thank you in Advance!
Newer versions of NuGet.exe can't resolve framework match when
restoring older packages (net40, netframework40)
The issue is that this nuget package smtp-impostor 2.0.8 is not compatible with the new PackageReference format and has nothing to do with Nuget V3.4.4 or Nuget V5.6.x.
Actually, the package was published on 2011 and the new package management format PackageReference was used since VS2017.
Besides, the author did not make any changes to the package to accommodate the new Packagereference. And I faced the same issue in my side.
Suggestion
As a workaround, you have to use packages.config to install this nuget package rather than PackageReference.
Since VS2017, VS adds the new PackageReference nuget management format and for your old VS2008, it uses Packages.config.
Or you could contains the author of the nuget package to change it.

Why does NuGet pack break with VS2019 build tools?

We have a number of .NET Framework projects with a "nuget pack MyProject.csproj" command in the post-build step. We have been using VS2010 (:O I know) until now, and it has been happily spitting out nupkg files.
We recently updated our build tools to the 2019 version (running the new version of varsall.bat before calling msbuild), and the "nuget pack" command now fails:
Error NU5012: Unable to find 'MyProject.dll'. Make sure the project has been built.
What I've tried:
Adding a "nuget spec" step before packing
Upgrading the nuget CLI executable to the latest version
Updating from packages.config to PackageReferences
This allows you to use MSBuild -t:pack. However, two issues:
When running this in the post-build step on my machine, it starts dozens of cmd & MSBuild processes and pegs my CPU.
Our developers are stuck on VS2017 for now, but the 2017 build tools are no longer available for our build server (so we use 2019). The 2017 & 2019 installs put MSBuild in different locations. We could set path variables for all the machines, but that seems brittle.
I'm playing with upgrading one of the projects to the new csproj format, but it is rather involved. Upgrading all of our projects will be an effort all its own, and I'm still exploring the ramifications.
Is there something simple I'm missing which will allow this to work without large modifications?
Error NU5012: Unable to find 'MyProject.dll'. Make sure the project
has been built.
This message indicates that the nuget.exe can't find the output assembly. So you must make sure the assembly is created successfully.
And one point you need to take care, normally we use command like nuget pack foo.csproj -Properties Configuration=Release to pack the assembly built in release mode. If you use command like nuget pack xx.csproj in post-build-event, no matter which configuration you use msbuild to build the project, nuget will always try to find the assembly in ProjectDir/bin/debug.
So when you deploy the project to remote server without bin and obj folders, if you try to use command like msbuild xx.csproj /p:Configuration=Release, the build is in release mode while nuget.exe will search the bin\debug instead of expected bin\release. You should check if you're in same situation.
Why does NuGet pack break with VS2019 build tools?
This issue is not about the build tools package. Since the error message you got came from nuget. Msbuild just help call the nuget.exe, and the cause of the issue is nuget.exe can't find the needed assembly by one specific path. Please check if the path in the error message is right, and then check if the assembly is in that path.
I also ran into the same issue during our TFS upgrade to Azure Devops. The new Nuget task doesn't have the switch for -Build. The fields in the Nuget task screen for Pack also doesn't allow you to add this switch, that's why it's complaining about not finding the dll or the output of the build. I modified the nugetpack.js file on the agent's task folder to test the theory and now the pack options build successfully.
This is the line I added to the js file (towards the bottom of the page):
nugetTool.arg("-Build");
what would be nice is to have this option represented as check box to cover if there is use case to call Nuget pack without -Build switch

MsBuild failing for .Net Standard project with error "Package System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData, version x.x.x was not found"

Project Setup : Mixed framework solution
.Net Framework 4.6.2 projects in solution : 15
.Net Standard 2.0 projects in solution - 1
Development Machine
Visual Studio 2017(15.7.4) : Builds without any errors
Build Server
TeamCity Version 2017.1.3
Build Steps
Nuget Restore(3.4.4)
dotnet Restore
MSBuild( Build Tools 2017), Tools Version 15.0
Build fails with following error in the .net standard 2.0 project : [ResolvePackageAssets] C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.1.301\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolution.targets(198, 5): Package System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData, version 4.4.0 was not found. It might have been deleted since NuGet restore. Otherwise, NuGet restore might have only partially completed, which might have been due to maximum path length restrictions.
What's interesting is I can't find reference or use of System.Security.Cryptography.ProtectedData anywhere in the project. Any help is greatly appreciated.
P.S - Can't use dotnet build, as the solution needs building of licenses.licx files, and the component which builds it (Microsoft.Build.Tasks.LC) is not ported to .Net Core. The suggestion from various posts was to use MsBuild.exe

Creating a nuget package containing a custom build step for .NET Core

Is it possible to create a nuget package containing a custom build step (analyzing the generated assembly and automatically generating some metadata)? The target environment should be .NET Core with the new .csproj format (Currently using Visual Studio 2017 RC). Best case would be if this only adds a msbuild step and no dependency to the projects resulting assembly.
If seen that it should be possible with full .NET, but the documentation for msbuild and the new .csproj for .NET Core is a bit sparse at the moment.
You can add MSBuild targets to a NuGet package in the "build" folder. The targets or props file name must match the package ID. When installed via "PackageReference" or packages.config, NuGet will automatically import the targets/props file into the csproj, so these files must be written as valid MSBuild code.
i.e. if your package was named "MyClassLibrary", you could have the following layout:
(package root)
lib/
netstandard1.3/
MyClassLibrary.dll
build/
netstandard1.3/
MyClassLibrary.props
MyClassLibrary.targets
For example, see Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets on NuGet.org or and its source code on GitHub. This package uses an MSBuild target to automatically generate an assembly attribute before the compilation step
Nuget may execute "init.ps1" powershell script during installation if find it in your nuget package. But keep attention, that script support was modified in Nuget 3.x:
In Nuget 3.xx Powershell script support was modified to no longer execute install and uninstall scripts (install.ps1, uninstall.ps1), but init scripts are still executed.
Additionally, running NuGet outside of Visual Studio at the command-line or on other operating systems cannot execute these Powershell scripts as they relied on Visual Studio automation. Powershell is in NuGet to provide a shim to allow for missing features to run inside of Visual Studio
Powershell script support was modified to no longer execute install and uninstall scripts, but init scripts are still executed.
You can find more here in "Powershell Install and Uninstall Scripts".

Visual Studio Online build error about NuGet client version (v3.0 or above required)

I am trying to setup a CI build using Visual Studio Online but I am getting the following error about the NuGet client:
The 'System.Net.Http 4.0.0' package requires NuGet client version '3.0' or above, but the current NuGet version is '2.8.60318.667'.
Solution builds and deploys fine directly from my Visual Studio 2015 itself but I am unable to get it to build in VSO. Does anyone if NuGet 3.x is installed on hosted build controllers or if I can supply my own copy along with my solution?
It's hard to guess by the question what build tasks are used. If you use VSBuild/MSBuild, it is only possible to turn "Restore NuGet packages" on, but there's no influence on the NuGet version.
However, if you turn this checkbox off, and instead add another build task called NuGet Installer before the main build step, you'll be able to provide a custom path to NuGet.exe. In the case of hosted build agent, the most obvious option is to commit required version of NuGet.exe to the repo, and then reference it from the build step:
Sounds like a hack, but it might work in your case.