I am creating a nuget package and I want it to add a post-build event to my project that will copy some dll files to its target directory.
Is such a thing possible? If so, how would I do it?
Or is there a way to, somehow, embed unmanaged dll's (native C++) in my nuget package and have them copied upon build to the target directory?
Well, I kinda figured it out by putting the unmanaged dll's in a Dependencies folder that I put inside the content directory of the nuget package.
Then my build/deploy process depends on that Dependencies folder. (Copy to output directory)
Related
How can I <Import> a .targets file that is included in <PackageReference>d NuGet package in a non-SDK-style web application project that targets .NET 4.7.2?
Background
The web application project is not an SDK-style project. It references a class library project in the same solution. This class library project is an SDK-style project. It has a package reference to Microsoft.Data.SqlClient version 4.1.0, which depends on Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.runtime 4.0.0. The latter contains native binaries which are automatically copied to the bin directory of the project.
The native binaries are not copied to the bin directory of the web application project. This is probably because of this:
SNI is the native C++ library that SqlClient depends on for various network operations when running on Windows. In .NET Framework applications that are built with the MSBuild Project SDK, native DLLs aren't managed with restore commands. So a ".targets" file is included in the "Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI" NuGet package that defines the necessary "Copy" operations.
The included ".targets" file is auto-referenced when a direct dependency is made to the "Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" library. In scenarios where a transitive (indirect) reference is made, this ".targets" file should be manually referenced to ensure "Copy" operations can execute when necessary.
Recommended Solution: Make sure the ".targets" file is referenced in the application's ".csproj" file to ensure "Copy" operations are executed.
Source
Not sure what "built with the MSBuild Project SDK" means exactly, but I think my scenario qualifies.
Now I'm trying to implement the recommended solution, but I cannot get it to work.
What I did
Step 1: add package reference to Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI version 4.0.0:
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI">
<GeneratePathProperty>true</GeneratePathProperty>
<Version>4.0.0</Version>
</PackageReference>
I added <GeneratePathProperty> because of step 2 below. According to the documentation this should make a property available that can be used to refer to files in the package:
Sometimes it is desirable to reference files in a package from an MSBuild target. In packages.config based projects, the packages are installed in a folder relative to the project file. However in PackageReference, the packages are consumed from the global-packages folder, which can vary from machine to machine.
To bridge that gap, NuGet introduced a property that points to the location from which the package will be consumed.
Step 2: import the targets file:
<Import Project="$(PkgMicrosoft_Data_SqlClient_SNI)\build\net46\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.targets" Condition="Exists('$(PkgMicrosoft_Data_SqlClient_SNI)\build\net46\Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SNI.targets')" />
You can see that the package contains this targets file using the NuGet package explorer (link). The PkgMicrosoft_Data_SqlClient_SNI property is named according to the documentation (linked above) and based on their example:
MSBuild properties and package identities do not have the same restrictions so the package identity needs to be changed to an MSBuild friendly name, prefixed by the word Pkg.
Step 3: verify the tool versions on our agent:
MSBuild 16.11.2.50704 (installed on the agent C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Current\bin)
NuGet 6.1.0.106 (installed via a pipeline task)
According to the documentation linked above, these fulfil the minimum requirements (MSBuild 16 and NuGet 5).
Step 4: run nuget restore on our build agent and then build the project using the Azure DevOps MSBuild#1 task with msbuildArguments: '/t:Build'.
Step 4: collect output and publish as an artifact.
Outcome:
The SNI files are not present in the output. When building locally with MSBuild 17.0.0.52104 (installed in 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\bin') I do see the SNI files.
I have .NET452 project - lets call it Consumer.csproj that I want to consume nuget lets call it SharedTargets that contained some custom targets files (SharedTargets.targets) from msbuild.
I'm using PackageReference format and now (compared to what it used to be) nuget packages are being restored to shared folder (%userprofile%.nuget\packages), and I'm not sure if it is good idea to reference it via that (doesn't feel right).
Eg:
<PackageReference Include="SharedTargets">
<Version>1.0</Version>
</PackageReference>
<Import
Project="$(USERPROFILE)\.nuget\packages\SharedTargets\1.0\SharedTargets.targets"
/>
Also this works only in VS, running this from command line (msbuild) I'm getting chicken-egg problem:
Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that
the file exists on disk.
Obviously since I need to restore nuget first before I can use it :)
So question:
is there some more elegant way how to resolve path to the nuget package inside project file
is there a way how to make msbuild succeed (i.e. restore packages before SharedTargets.target is imported)
You shouldn't try to manually import targets distributed via NuGet.
Put your .targets file inside a build subfolder inside the package and name it SharedTargets.targets (package id + .targets) and NuGet will automatically include the targets - for packages.config projects it will modify the project file on install and for PackageReference projects the targets will be imported by modifying an implicitly generated targets file in the obj\ directory.
I have a repository that contains two solutions. One solution (in this case solution A) for a web project that has a reference to a project in the second solution (in this case solution B) (in the same repository).
When I build the web project in VSTS I pull the repository, build solution B, and then build solution B.
Build solution B work, but, the build of solution A is failed cause the reference dll of the project in solution B didn't found
You have a few options:
1) Use project references. You don't need to depend on an assembly.
2) Use NuGet packages -- the shared piece is built via a CI process, turned into a NuGet package, and then published to a Packages feed. The dependent projects can reference the NuGet package and restore an appropriate version on build.
Which approach you should take depends on a lot of factors. If you're not worried about versioning, just use project references.
As Daniel said that it’s better to use NuGet packages.
Regarding reference the assembly file directly, refer to these steps:
Open your web project file through Notepad
Find the related reference and check Hintpath value, should be relative path.
Add Copy files task to your build definition (Before build solution A task) to copy corresponding assembly files to corresponding folder (per to that relative path)
I found something called "MyProjectName.deps.json" in the "bin" directory. But if i delete the "bin" directory and build my project again it gets created again. Where does VisualStudio pull this data from (which packages should be included in the project)?
This is based upon the obj\project.assets.json file (generated by NuGet restore) which defines inputs to the build logic that are used for the generation of the .deps.json file, along with other references from the project file.
After using TeamCity, my build process is Visual Studio (sln) -> NuGet Pack. Everything builds fine and the artifact is created. But the artifact has every single file, include the .vbproj, .vb files, the classes folder which only holds .vb files.
Is there a way to turn a setting on to create the artifact which doesn't have all the .vb files etc due to them being compiled in the .dll?
For anyone wondering, I just excluded the .vb files in the nuspec
Have you considered using Octopack to package the nuget. It is smart enough to include all the required files into the package and will not require a custom nuspec file that you would need to source control and manage for any future changes.
IMO custom nuspec file should be used only if you have a very specific requirement such as if the target directory is different.
(mark as content and copy always for the files that you want to include)