NuGet.Packaging.Sdk

NuGet.Packaging.Sdk

Summary

An MSBuild SDK package that provides Project System support for NuGet package authoring. Having a separate Project System makes it possible to author complex NuGet packages, otherwise not possible with Pack targets. One such need is to create a completely customized package with a custom layout that is different from the standard layout. One can also pack existing libraries (via other projects and packages) into the package or add them to package dependencies.

It's basically an SDK wrapper around NuGet.Build.Packaging aka NuGetizer-3000 project, with targets optimized for SDK-style projects.

Package Name: NuGet.Packaging.Sdk

Getting started

Visual Studio v15.6+ includes support for SDK's resolved from NuGet. That makes using the custom SDKs much easier.

See Using MSBuild project SDKs guide on Microsoft Docs for more information on how project SDKs work and how project SDKs are resolved.

Using the SDK

1. Create a new project

   • from dotnet new templates.
   • With your existing SDK-style project.

2. Replace Microsoft.NET.Sdk with NuGet.Packaging.Sdk in the project's top-level Sdk attribute.

3. You have to tell MSBuild that the Sdk should resolve from NuGet by

   • Adding a global.json containing the SDK name and version.
   • Appending a version info to the Sdk attribute value.

4. Remove the TargetFramework(s) and other .NET specific properties from the project file. Older versions of VS IDE might require TargetFramework(s) property to open the project in IDE successfully.

5. Then you can add package specific properties and items (though some are included by default) and use the project for building a NuGet package.

The final project should look like this:

<Project Sdk="NuGet.Packaging.Sdk">

    <PropertyGroup>
        <PackageId>Vendor.Awesome.Package</PackageId>
        <!-- Other Package-specific properties -->
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Some files in the project and files outside of project cone should be included manually -->
    <ItemGroup>
        <PackageFile Include="$(RepoRoot)ReadMe.md" TargetPath="\">
        <PackageFile Include="SomeBuildCustom.props" TargetPath="\build\$(PackageId).props">
        <PackageFile Include="SomeBuildCustom.targets" TargetPath="\build\$(PackageId).targets">
    </ItemGroup>

</Project>

You can put the SDK version in the global.json file next to your solution:

{
    "msbuild-sdks": {
        "NuGet.Packaging.Sdk": "1.0.0"
    }
}

Then, all of your project files, from that directory forward, uses the version from the global.json file. This would be a preferred solution for all the projects in your solution.

Then again, you might want to override the version for just one project OR if you have only one project in your solution (without adding global.json), you can do so like this:

<Project Sdk="NuGet.Packaging.Sdk/1.0.0">

    <PropertyGroup>
        <PackageId>Vendor.Awesome.Package</PackageId>
        <!-- Other Package-specific properties -->
    </PropertyGroup>

    <!-- Other properties, items and targets -->

</Project>

That's it! You do not need to specify any default properties or items as they'll be automatically defined. After that, you can use the Restore, Build, Pack targets to restore packages, build the project and create NuGet packages: e.g., msbuild -t:Pack ....

Important to Note

• As the project support in the SDK is based on an experimental NuGet project, it requires the NuGet Packaging Visual Studio extension to load .nuproj project types.
• Since the extension hasn't been updated in a while, newer VS IDE can't install the extension and thus can't open the project. So, either use internally published VS IDE extension or just use VS Code with OmniSharp extension.