NuGet auto package restore does not work with MSBuild

Question

I m trying to build a solution with packages content missing  except repositories config inside  with MSBuild 12 0  I expect it to auto restore all missing packages before building but this is not the case - MsBuild reports tons of errors        are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference      NuGet Manager is 2 7  I see this in Visual Studio 2013 about box   I even tried to pass EnableNuGetPackageRestore true parameter - no luck  What am I missing

User · Answer

It took me some time to figure out the whole picture and I'd like to share here.

Visual Studio has two approaches to use package restore: Automatic Package Restore and MSBuild-Integrated package restore. The 'MSBuild-Integrated Package Restore' restores packages DURING the building process that might cause issues in some scenarios. The 'Automatic Package Restore' is the recommended approach by the NuGet team.

There are several steps to to make 'Automatic Package Restore' work:

In Visual Studio, Tools -> Extensions and Updates, Upgrade NuGet if there is a newer version (Version 2.7 or later)
If you use TFS, in your solution's .nuget folder, remove the NuGet.exe and NuGet.targes files. Then edit NuGet.Config to not check in NuGet packages:
```
<configuration>  
  <solution>  
    <add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />  
  </solution>  
</configuration> 
```
If you checked in the solution's packages folder to TFS before, delete the folder and check in the deletion of package folder deletion.

If you don't use TFS, delete the .nuget folder.
In each project file (.csproj or .vbproj) in your solution, remove the line that references NuGet.targets file. The reference looks like this:
```
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets" Condition="Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" />
```
Remove this line in every project file in your solution.
In Visual Studio menu, either through

Tools -> Options -> Package Manager -> General or Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Settings

please enable the following two options 1) 'Allow NuGet to download missing packages' 2) 'Automatically check for missing packages during build in Visual Studio'
Test your package restore configuration by the following steps
- Save your solution and close Visual Studio
- Delete your solution's packages folder
- Start Visual Studio, open your solution and rebuild it.

User · Answer

Ian Kemp has the answer  have some points btw     this is to simply add some meat to one of his steps   The reason I ended up here was that dev s machines were building fine  but the build server simply wasn t pulling down the packages required  empty packages folder  and therefore the build was failing  Logging onto the build server and manually building the solution worked  however   To fulfil the second of Ians 3 point steps  running nuget restore   you can create an MSBuild target running the exec command to run the nuget restore command  as below  in this case nuget exe is in the  nuget folder  rather than on the path   which can then be run in a TeamCity build step  other CI available     immediately prior to building the solution   lt Target Name  BeforeBuild  gt     lt Exec Command      nuget nuget restore    MySolution sln   gt   lt  Target gt    For the record I d already tried the  nuget installer  runner type but this step was hanging on web projects  worked for DLL s and Windows projects

User · Answer

Sometimes this occurs when you have the folder of the package you are trying to restore inside the  packages  folder  i e   Packages EntityFramework 6 0 0    but the  DLLs  are not inside it  most of the version control systems automatically ignore   dll  files   This occurs because before NuGet tries to restore each package it checks if the folders already exist  so if it exists  NuGet assumes that the  dll  is inside it  So if this is the problem for you just delete the folder that NuGet will restore it correctly

User · Answer

Nuget s Automatic Package Restore is a feature of the Visual Studio  starting in 2013   not MSBuild  You ll have to run nuget exe restore if you want to restore packages from the command line    You can also use the Enable Nuget Package Restore feature  but this is no longer recommended by the nuget folks because it makes intrusive changes to the project files and may cause problems if you build those projects in another solution

User · Answer

I had an issue with nuget packages not being included in a scripted nightly build that builds the sln file using devenv exe    I followed the advice from Microsoft  and the key step was updating the NuGet config in  AppData  NuGet so that it contained    lt configuration gt       lt packageRestore gt           lt add key  automatic  value  True    gt       lt  packageRestore gt   lt  configuration gt

User · Answer

UPDATED with latest official NuGet documentation as of v3 3 0  Package Restore Approaches     NuGet offers three approaches to using package restore         Automatic Package Restore is the NuGet team s recommended approach to Package Restore within Visual Studio  and it was introduced in NuGet 2 7    Beginning with NuGet 2 7  the NuGet Visual Studio extension integrates into Visual Studio s build events and restores missing packages when a build begins  This feature is enabled by default  but developers can opt out if desired         Here s how it works          On project or solution build  Visual Studio raises an event that a   build is beginning within the solution     NuGet responds to this event   and checks for packages config files included in the solution     For each packages config file found  its packages are enumerated and   Checked for exists in the solution s packages folder    Any missing packages are downloaded from the user s configured  and enabled  package sources  respecting the order of the package sources    As packages are downloaded  they are unzipped into the solution s   packages folder            If you have Nuget 2 7  installed  it s important to pick one method for   managing Automatic Package Restore in Visual Studio       Two methods are available           Nuget 2 7    Visual Studio -  Tools -  Package Manager -  Package   Manager Settings -  Enable Automatic Package Restore     Nuget 2 6 and below  Right clicking on a solution and clicking  Enable Package   Restore for this solution               Command-Line Package Restore is required when building a solution from the command-line  it was introduced in early versions of NuGet    but was improved in NuGet 2 7     nuget exe restore contoso sln        The MSBuild-integrated package restore   approach is the original Package Restore implementation and though it   continues to work in many scenarios  it does not cover the full set of   scenarios addressed by the other two approaches

User · Answer

You can also use   Update-Package -reinstall   to restore the NuGet packages on the Package Management Console in Visual Studio

User · Answer

Note that if you are using TeamCity as a build server  you get a  NuGet Installer  step that you can use to restore all the packages before the build step

User · Answer

There is a packages config file with the project  it contains the package details   Also there is a  nuget folder which contains the NuGet exe and NuGet targets  if any one of the file is missing it will not restore the missing package and  cause  are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference   error

User · Answer

In Visual Studio 2017 - When you compile using IDE - It will download all the missing nuget packages and save in the folder  packages    But on the build machine compilation was done using msbuild exe  In that case  I downloaded nuget exe and kept in path   During each build process before executing msbuild exe  It will execute -  nuget exe restore NAME OF SLN File  if there is only one  SLN file then you can ignore that parameter

User · Answer

MSBuild 15 has a  t restore option that does this  it comes with Visual Studio 2017   If you want to use this  you also have to use the new PackageReference  which means replacing the packages config file with elements like this  do this in   csproj     lt ItemGroup gt     lt  --     -- gt     lt PackageReference Include  Contoso Utility UsefulStuff  Version  3 6 0    gt     lt  --     -- gt   lt  ItemGroup gt    There is an automated migration to this format if you right click on  References   it might not show up if you just opened visual studio  rebuild or open up the  Manage NuGet packages for solution  window and it will start appearing

User · Answer

If you are using Visual Studio 2017 or later which ships with MSBuild 15 or later  and your  csproj files are in the new PackageReference format  the simplest method is to use the new MSBuild Restore target     No-one has actually answered the original question  which is  how do I get NuGet packages to auto-restore when building from the command-line with MSBuild   The answer is  unless you are using the  Enable NuGet package restore  option  which is now deprecated as per this reference   you can t  but see below   If you are trying to do e g  automated builds on a CI server  this sucks   However there is a slightly roundabout way to get the desired behaviour    Download the latest NuGet executable from https   dist nuget org win-x86-commandline latest nuget exe and place it somewhere in your PATH   You can do this as a pre-build step   Run nuget restore which will auto-download all the missing packages  Run msbuild to build your solution    Aside  while the new and recommended way to do auto package restore involves less clutter in your version control  it also makes command-line package restore impossible unless you jump through the extra hoop of downloading and running nuget exe  Progress

[.net] NuGet auto package restore does not work with MSBuild

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