VS 2019 Solution Explorer references files from old Nuget packages

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2019 for a .NET Core 3.1 MVC application. I have installed several Nuget packages that I also created. Some of the packages contain their own settings files which need to be copied to the output directory in order for the application to work properly. These settings files are put into their own folder and everything is mostly fine. Sample .csproj file of one of these packages:

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFrameworks>net461;netstandard2.0</TargetFrameworks>
    <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
    <Authors>[redacted</Authors>
    <Company>[redacted</Company>
    <Description>[redacted]</Description>
    <Version>1.0.2.2-alpha</Version>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Remove="settings\mySettings.Development.json" />
    <None Remove="settings\mySettings.Production.json" />
    <None Remove="settings\mySettings.Staging.json" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="settings\mySettings.Development.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <Pack>true</Pack>
    </Content>
    <Content Include="settings\mySettings.Production.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <Pack>true</Pack>
    </Content>
    <Content Include="settings\mySettings.Staging.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
      <Pack>true</Pack>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>

What's strange is when I update one of these packages, sometimes Visual Studio doesn't link to the settings file in the updated package. So for example, this is my .csproj file for the web application.

    <Content Update="..\..\..\..\..\.nuget\packages\mypackage\1.0.2.2-alpha\contentFiles\any\netstandard2.0\settings\mySettings.Development.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
    <Content Update="..\..\..\..\..\.nuget\packages\mypackage\1.0.2.2-alpha\contentFiles\any\netstandard2.0\settings\mySettings.Production.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
    <Content Update="..\..\..\..\..\.nuget\packages\mypackage\1.0.2.2-alpha\contentFiles\any\netstandard2.0\settings\mySettings.Staging.json">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>

This part looks fine, even if I had to manually change the paths from absolute to relative.

But in the Solution Explorer, when I view the properties for these files, it shows the build action as None and the path is to an older package version. If I then change the build action to Copy always, VS will add instructions for copying the older file to the .csproj.

This is potentially a problem in that if another developer takes over this project, they may not notice the version differences and if they change the build action, they could overwrite the correct settings file with the older one.

I don't see any reference to the older version in the .csproj file, so where is that coming from? Note that the older version of the package is not installed anywhere the solution, either. Does anyone know what the deal is?

Thanks.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 04 '21 at 06:36

You have to clean the nuget cache first or just delete all files under C:\Users\Administrator\.nuget\packages.

Not sure that if your old package version is the same as the new one. In other words, you still make a same package version and did not assign a new one for it which makes VS always install that old one from the nuget cache. So you have to clean the nuget cache folder to remove all the old packages.

So my suggestion is that when you install the new release version of the nuget package, you have to clean nuget caches first, also delete bin and obj folder.

Besides, if you want to make the conent files of the nuget package be copied into the main project's output folder. Please use

<PackageCopyToOutput>true</PackageCopyToOutput>

Check this similar issue.

Yes, that was it. Thanks! And also for the other tip. It's much better than consumers having to remember to change that setting. — howcheng, Feb 06 '21 at 00:46

VS 2019 Solution Explorer references files from old Nuget packages

1 Answers1