How to properly configure NuGet Packages for collaboration with DevOps (TFS)

Question

I have read and gone trough the following:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/consume-packages/package-restore#enabling-and-disabling-package-restore
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/consume-packages/package-restore-troubleshooting
• Why is there no packages folder in .my NET Core solution's containing folder?
• 'nuget' is not recognized but other nuget commands working
• https://www.skylinetechnologies.com/Blog/Skyline-Blog/July_2016/Relocate_NuGet_Package_Restore_Folder

But i still have issues with the Folder Packages which contains the Packages for my solution, when i check in my code, for my on my side everything works fine, when someone else gets the checked in solution, he has to change the path that is set in the ProjectNameFile.csproj because the path there contains

../../../../NuGetPackages/....

but should be (and only works if changed to)

../Packages

But than when this persons checks in and i get this version, my packages folder is gone ... We have been using TFS on other projects here but this is a first for me ...

I tried all what the links i posted are suggestion but with no luck. Tools > options > NuGet Package Manager looks like this:

I have a NuGet.Config file on the same level as my projectname.sln file which has following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <config>
    <!-- I tried each line below seperately and together -->
    <add key="globalPackagesFolder" value=".\packages" /> 
    <add key="repositoryPath" value="C:\Development\projectname\Packages" />
  </config>
</configuration>

So what i did now is i created a Packages folder on the projectname.sln level and when i build my solution, this works but hey, i can't do that each (X) time and i am sure there is a way of achieving this but don't know how.

Thank you in advance for any feedback.

Answer 1

How to properly configure NuGet Packages for collaboration with DevOps (TFS)

I suppose you are using the packages.config as nuget package management, because you said " he has to change the path that is set in the ProjectNameFile.csproj because the path there contains ../../../../NuGetPackages/....".

So, if you are using packages.config, you should use relative paths for the repositoryPath in your nuget.config file when you build the project with Azure DevOps.

As we know, when we build the project in the Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps always copy the project to the path like D:\a\1\s\xx, which is different with the path in your local. And NuGet always use the relative paths (..\packages or ../../../../NuGetPackages/...)in the ProjectNameFile.csproj like:

<Reference Include="packagename, Version=3.0.0.0, xxx">
  <Private>True</Private>
  <HintPath>..\packages\xxx\lib\net45\xxx.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

In this case, when we build the project, nuget will still restore the nuget packages to absolute path C:\Development\projectname\Packages, but since the location of the project has changed to the D:\a\1\s\xx, so the relative paths for the HintPath in the .csproj file should also be changed accordingly, otherwise nuget can't find the corresponding dll file.

So, we should set the repositoryPath as relative paths in the nuget.config file, like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <config>
    <add key="repositoryPath" value=".\packages" />
  </config>
</configuration>

With this setting, the path of the packages folder are based on the file nuget.config. As long as you have not modified the location of the nuget.config file, the HintPath does not need to be modified.

Note:

1. globalPackagesFolder is uesed for another nuget management type packagereference.

2. If you are working with someone else to develop a project, you need to unify the location of the nuget package, rather than continually modifying the HintPath manually. Otherwise it will cause confusion in your development.

Hope this helps.