Packager

A tool to package a project before deployment.

Usage

This tool is intended to be used in the context of Continuous Integration (CI). In your CI script:

• Download the packager. Ex: nuget install Packager -DependencyVersion Highest -OutputDirectory packages
• Run it in the root directory, this will generate a .nuspec file in the nuget subdirectory.
• If desired, repeat with --debug to generate a .nuspec file that include symbols in the nuget-debug directory.
• Run nuget pack command(s) to generate package(s).

Getting the tool version

If you choose to download the latest version of the tool, the following PowerShell script will find the version number and run it:

- ps: $folder = Get-ChildItem -Path packages/Packager.* -Name | Out-String    # Get the installation folder
- ps: $firstline = ($folder -split '\r\n')[0]                                 # Get rid of carriage-return
- ps: $fullpath = ".\packages\$firstline\lib\net48\Packager.exe"              # Build full path
- ps: '& $fullpath --debug'                                                   # Execute the packager with --debug

Suuported tags

The packager supports the following tags in the project file:

.csproj tag	Description	.nuspec tag
Authors	The package authors.	authors
Description	The package description.	description
Copyright	The package copyright.	copyright
RepositoryUrl	The project repository.	projectUrl
PackageIcon	The package icon (can be overwritten with --icon).	icon
PackageLicenseExpression	The package license.	license
PackageReadmeFile	The package readme.	readme

Dependencies

The packager will declare as many dependencies as there are frameworks in the <Framework> or <Frameworks> tags.

There is support for framework-specific depedencies, debug/release dependencies, and for excluding some dependencies.

To declare a dependency, specify a PackageReference in the project file, and use one the options listed below, from highest to lowest priority.

Private assets

If PrivateAssets is all the reference will not be included. This is typically the case for analyzers.

If you still want to include the reference, you can use compile;runtime;contentFiles;build;buildMultitargeting;buildTransitive;analyzers;native which is the same as all for all purpose but this comparison.

Conditional, for a release build

With a condition that is either "'$(Configuration)'!='Debug'" or "'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'!='Debug|x64'" depending if you're generating Any CPU or x64 binaries.

Conditional, for a debug build

With a condition that is either "'$(Configuration)'=='Debug'" or "'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|x64'" depending if you're generating Any CPU or x64 binaries.

Conditional, for a specific framework

With a condition of the type "'$(TargetFramework)'=='<Framework>'" where <Framework> is one of the target frameworks in the project, the dependency will be added only for that frameork in the package.

To specify a dependency for the .NET Framework 4.7.2 for instance, use "'$(TargetFramework)'=='net472'".

If a dependency is the same for several frameworks you must repeat the PackageReference tag for each framework, with the appropriate condition. For example, the following doesn't work:

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Build" Version="17.11.4" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net7.0-windows7.0' Or '$(TargetFramework)'=='net8.0-windows7.0'" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Build" Version="17.12.6" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net9.0-windows7.0'" />
</ItemGroup>

But this does:

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Build" Version="17.11.4" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net7.0-windows7.0'" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Build" Version="17.11.4" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net8.0-windows7.0'" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Build" Version="17.12.6" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)'=='net9.0-windows7.0'" />
</ItemGroup>

Excluding a dependency

If you want to exclude a dependency to a PackageReference that is included in the project, just add a condition that will always be true when you build, such as "'$(Configuration)'!='None'".

The packager use conditions inside the PackageReference tag. You can play with conditions in the parent ItemGroup to include or exclude stuff differently than the packager.