.NET Core Dependency Tree

Question

Is it possible to view dependencies for a project in a .net core application? I'm using Visual Studio 2017 Professional.

At the moment I have the following nugget packages referenced in my csproj.

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.AspNetCore" Version="2.0.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.Cookies" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc" Version="1.1.3" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer.Design" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.BrowserLink" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="SimpleInjector.Integration.AspNetCore.Mvc" Version="4.0.8" />
</ItemGroup>

Where you can navigate dependencies.

But it makes it hard to find a particular dependency - a tree is good if you know what you are looking for. Is there a way to output a flat list of dependant assemblies and there versions?

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 06 '20 at 12:46

You can add an msbuild target to your project file (inside the <Project> element) like this:

<Target Name="PrintAllReferences" DependsOnTargets="RunResolvePackageDependencies">
  <Message Importance="high" Text="Referenced package: %(PackageDefinitions.Identity)" />
</Target>

Which you can call like this (a line without a parent package name means it is referenced by the project directly):

$ dotnet msbuild /nologo /t:PrintAllReferences
  Referenced package: Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms/1.1.0
  Referenced package: Microsoft.NETCore.Targets/1.1.0
  Referenced package: Microsoft.Win32.Primitives/4.3.0
  Referenced package: NETStandard.Library/1.6.1
  Referenced package: runtime.debian.8-x64.runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.fedora.23-x64.runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.fedora.24-x64.runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.native.System/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.native.System.IO.Compression/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.native.System.Net.Http/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.Apple/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.opensuse.13.2-x64.runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: runtime.opensuse.42.1-x64.runtime.native.System.Security.Cryptography.OpenSsl/4.3.0
  Referenced package: System.Buffers/4.3.0
  Referenced package: System.Collections/4.3.0
  …

If you wanted a "reverse dependency tree" - a list of packages and which packages reference them - you can do something similar to:

<Target Name="PrintPackagesAndParents" DependsOnTargets="RunResolvePackageDependencies">
  <Message Importance="high" Text="* %(PackageDependencies.Identity) referenced by:%0a^---@(PackageDependencies->'%(ParentPackage) - target %(ParentTarget)', '%0a^---')" />
</Target>

which produces the following output:

$ dotnet msbuild /nologo /t:PrintPackagesAndParents
  * JetBrains.Annotations/10.2.1 referenced by:
  ^--- - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  * System.IO.FileSystem.Primitives/4.0.1 referenced by:
  ^---NETStandard.Library/1.6.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.IO.Compression.ZipFile/4.0.1 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.IO.FileSystem/4.0.1 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.Xml.ReaderWriter/4.0.11 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  * System.Linq/4.1.0 referenced by:
  ^---NETStandard.Library/1.6.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.Security.Cryptography.Encoding/4.0.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  * System.Linq.Expressions/4.1.0 referenced by:
  ^---NETStandard.Library/1.6.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  * System.Net.Http/4.1.0 referenced by:
  ^---NETStandard.Library/1.6.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  * System.Net.Primitives/4.0.11 referenced by:
  ^---NETStandard.Library/1.6.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.Net.Http/4.1.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  ^---System.Net.Sockets/4.1.0 - target .NETStandard,Version=v1.3
  …

There isn't really documentation about these items, but they have "public" name and are generated by the ResolvePackageDependencies task which is executed as part of the RunResolvePackageDependencies target and produces a few very useful items: TargetDefinitions, PackageDefinitions, PackageDependencies, FileDependencies and DiagnosticMessages.

Ah, very nice. Also, if you save the command in a batch file called `dotnet-printrefs.bat` you'll be able to call it from the command line like this `dotnet printrefs` — DavidG, Jul 06 '17 at 09:39
Oh, and put the batch file in `C:\Program Files\dotnet` and you can use it in any project too — DavidG, Jul 06 '17 at 09:47
Neat. Are there docs on this? What other information can you add? Can you get the full dependency tree output so you can see what the parent assembly is? — Andez, Jul 06 '17 at 20:01
Added an example for a reverse dependency tree and links to the source code. I don't think there is a good documentation about it though.. — Martin Ullrich, Jul 06 '17 at 21:45
I'm unable to get this to work with .NET Core 2.1+. My thoughts are that the target _ResolvePackageDependenciesForBuild_ or ItemGroup _PackageDefinitions_ might have changed names. I'm also not finding any documentation on msbuild targets in use by .NET Core. Anyone having the same issue? — JesperA, Nov 21 '18 at 11:23
Ah yeah the resolution was revamped for 2.0, you'd now need to depend on `RunResolvePackageDependencies` AFAIK — Martin Ullrich, Nov 21 '18 at 12:05

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 10 '18 at 12:45

6

This flashed up today in the Morning Brew which might be worth a look:

Martin Bjorkstrom Dotnet Depends

answered Aug 10 '18 at 12:45

Andez

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score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '20 at 18:32

5

You can actually search through dependencies of particular project quite easily in Visual Studio.

Just right click on Dependencies, select "scope to this". And then you can directly search through dependencies.

answered Aug 13 '20 at 18:32

raviteja yakkaladevi

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 24 '22 at 10:50

2

In the dropdown if Search bar, tick Search within file contents and Search within external items, and enter the package you want to search to see the dependency tree if this package

answered Aug 24 '22 at 10:50

Long Do Thanh

336
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.NET Core Dependency Tree

4 Answers4

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