How do I exclude project dependencies in ASP.NET Core?

Question

Inside my solution using ASP.NET Core 2.0, I have three projects: A, B and C. My desired behavior for the project dependencies is for A to depend on B, B to depend on C and C to have no dependencies.

In ASP.NET MVC 5, this was easily achievable by setting A to reference B and B to reference C. However in Core, when a project depends on another project, it also inherits all of that project's dependencies. In this case, that means that A inherits B's dependency on C. This dependency can be seen in Visual Studio's Solution Explorer here: .

I want A to depend on B, but none of B's dependencies, like this: .

Does anyone know how to accomplish my desired behavior, either through Visual Studio or the .csproj file? Thanks!

Isn't one of the new features of 2.0 that when you build the realease version of a project, only the dependencies that it uses is being refrenced? Although i'm not sure if it fully resolves your problem, but you might look into how that works. — Johan Herstad, Sep 03 '17 at 08:09
@JohanHerstad Thanks, I've looked into this but don't think it will solve my problem. One of the biggest reasons I want to set my project up this way is so that it will never even suggest **using ProjectC** statements in "Show Potential Fixes". This will make it impossible for any developer working on Project A to reference Project C by accident. — levihassel, Sep 04 '17 at 19:22

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '17 at 04:07

I figured it out.

In order for Project A to reference B and B to reference C, but A to not reference C, I added PrivateAssets="All" to B's ProjectReference to C, like so:

In B.csproj

<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\C\C.csproj" PrivateAssets="All" />
</ItemGroup>

This setting makes C's reference private so it only exists within B. Now projects that reference B will no longer also reference C.

Source: https://github.com/dotnet/project-system/issues/2313

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 25 '20 at 16:15

If you want the same behavior like in .NET Framework and ASP.NET MVC 5 projects then you can create this Directory.Build.props file in the root folder.

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>    
    <DisableTransitiveProjectReferences>true</DisableTransitiveProjectReferences>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

If you want more detailed explanation you can read my other answer to similar question.

How do I exclude project dependencies in ASP.NET Core?

2 Answers2