Nuget files are locked every time Gated Checkin Build fails - visual-studio

I know that NuGet restoration could place checkout locks on the package folder and the contained files. But why does TFS Build not release those locks in the event of Gated Checkin Build failing due to compilation errors?
When Gated Checkin Build fails, Visual Studio does not allow to unshelve changes because files are locked by TFS service on the build server.
TFS Sidekick shows multiple files being locked by TFS service account.

If your solution is set to restore NuGet Packages you don't need to check packages into TFS as they will be restored on the build, Setting your solution to Restore packages will stop TFS from trying to add packages to the packages folder.
As MrHinsh says, Your packages folder within TFS should contain nothing more than the Config file

Option 1: You need to adds .tfignore to the packages folder with "*/" as a filter. You effectively don't ever want to check anything in under this folder other than the config file.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms245454.aspx
Option 2: (Better) Add a nuget.config file to your solution, convention is to place it under a folder named .nuget - but it can stay at root too. Content should be:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
</configuration>
That will exclude the packages folder, you don't need anything in there. NOTE: If you're using NuGet 2.7 or above, automatic restore is on by default. Don't use the "Enable NuGet Restore" in your solution, it adds the old way of doing this. See http://geekswithblogs.net/terje/archive/2014/06/11/converting-projects-to-use-automatic-nuget-restore.aspx

Related

Install NuGet packages to Project Dirs instead of Solution Dir?

I have a solution in Visual Studio 2015 with about 40 projects in it. Some of these projects have some NuGet packages referenced.
Due to a combination of our branching strategy (where each project folder is branched individually) and our security requirements (that the NuGet binaries are actually checked into TFS) I would like the NuGet packages for each Project to be installed into each Project's folder, not in the solution's folder. Space usage is not a concern here.
I've looked at:
https://docs.nuget.org/consume/nuget-config-file
https://docs.nuget.org/Release-Notes/NuGet-2.1#Specify-packages-Folder-Location
And they've helped my understanding of how the config files work... but I can't seem to get it to do what I want.
I've tried this in my config file:
<configuration>
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="$(ProjectDir)\Nuget\" />
</config>
</configuration>
But it creates a folder in the solution folder actually called '$(ProjectDir)'.
And I can't hardcode the path to the project folders (i.e. 'C:\myteam\teampackages' in the NuGet docs) as pretty much everyone in the team have different paths to their local workspaces!
How can I do this?
Firstly, you should not check in NuGet packages into TFS Version Control. As one of the advantages of using NuGet is that you can use it to avoid checking in binaries to your version control system.
Instead, you need to restore NuGet packages during TFS build process and the required packages will be downloaded. In VS2015, you need to follow steps in this blog: https://docs.nuget.org/consume/package-restore/team-build).
Some key steps are (assume you're working with XAML build):
Add following items to the solution. (Content of the nuget.config and .tfignore file can be found here)
Add one build.proj file under the root path of the solution folder. (Content of the build.proj file can be found here)
Create one folder named tools under the root path of the solution folder. Create NuGet sub-folder under tools folder, download and save nuget.exe under tools\NuGet path.
Check in nuget.config, .tfignore, build.proj and tools\NuGet\nuget.exe into TFS version control.
Modify the build definition to choose to build the build.proj file.
Then you will have NuGet packages restored successfully during the TFS build process.
The Nuget docs mentions specifying package folder location is to have many different solutions share the same package. This is an opposite scenario as your. Repository path setting only allows you to install the NuGet packages in the specified folder (like C:\teampackages ) or for relative path (like ../Nuget).
To make installing package in different repositoryPath, you can try:
<configuration>
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="../Nuget" />
</config>
</configuration>
Check case: Is it possible to change the location of packages for NuGet?

TFS/VS 2013 - Ignore ALL NuGet packages [duplicate]

I'm trying to get TFS (2013) to ignore my packages folder. I passionately don't want it source controlled as I'm using NuGet and it's great!
I've tried cloaking (doesn't seem to work), I've tried adding .tfignore files - nothing is ignored. Why don't the TFS team just add an option to permanently ignore a folder or file like lots of the Subversion clients do?!
Here's the deal: We have to tell both NuGet and TFS to ignore the packages, because NuGet is trying to do source-control related stuff that it absolutely shouldn't be doing (bad form, Microsoft!). So you have to do two things.
First, add a file named .tfignore to the solution folder (note the lack of s after the tf). Its contents should be as follows:
\packages
That tells TFS to ignore your packages folder. Now, you would think that this would also ignore the repositories.config file. But it won't. Why? Who knows, the ways of Microsoft are strange and mysterious. Actually, I think it's part of the NuGet stuff I outline below, but if that ever gets fixed in the future and you want to keep the repositories.config file instead of letting VS regenerate it, you should be able to use this:
\packages
!\packages\repositories.config
OK, so now thanks to our .tfignore file, TFS is ignoring your packages. Everything is fine, right? WRONG, because NuGet is mucking around with your source control and adding the packages to your pending changes. So now let's tell NuGet to cut it out already.
Create a folder called .nuget in the root of your solution folder.1 Now, create a file called NuGet.config, and put it in this new folder2. Its contents should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
</configuration>
And now your packages should stay out of source control. Just remember to add the NuGet.config and .tfignore files to source control so they never get lost.
EDIT: If you're having issues, you may want to delete your packages folder, check in that change, and then go through the steps above.
ALSO EDIT: It looks like this won't happen with newer versions of Nuget. So maybe if you switch to VS/TFS 2017 this issue will clear up without jumping through the above hoops.
1. Add the folder using Source Control Explorer; right-click the solution->Add folder->.nuget
2. When I figured this out using VS 2013, I found the NuGet.config had to go in the .nuget folder. Even if you already have a NuGet.config file in the root of your solution folder (because, say, your company has an internal nuget feed). However, some in the comments have indicated that it works fine in the solution root in VS 2015. Personally, I switched to using TFS in git mode, so I can't test. Additionally, if you do have a custom feed, ensure that you have both the custom feed and nuget.org as keys in the Nuget.config file, or sometimes TFS will randomly decide it can't restore the packages.
An alternative solution to the above is the following.
Add the packages folder to TFS (without any files or sub-folders)
Right Click the Packages Folder
Left Click Advanced
Click Cloak
It is worth noting that this solution would need to be applied per TFS workspace. It has worked far more reliably for me rather than using the .tfignore file.
You can read more about this approach in the blog article Prevent TFS from adding installed NuGet packages to source control.
for people reporting that the .tfignore option wasn't working with the nuget.config setting it might be of interest - these steps finally worked for me:
Delete everything in my packages folder
Make sure TFS doesn't have any changes around that folder pending
Close VS
Re-open VS, and reload solution - using Nuget restore to re-populate
packages Note no changes are pending for TFS source control
Add a nuget.config file in a .nuget folder in your solution.
Add the following to the nuget.config file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
</configuration>
The disableSourceControlIntegration is what makes the trick for TFS Version Control.
You need to be using local workspaces for .tfignore to work. The .tfignore file must be in the folder that contains the files or folders you want to ignore.
So if your solution structure looks like this:
\Project
\Packages
\OtherStuff
foo.cs
You'd put your .tfignore file in \Project:
\Project
\Packages
\OtherStuff
foo.cs
.tfignore
The contents of the .tfignore in your case would be:
\packages
Here's some documentation for you: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/vstudio/ms245454(v=vs.110).aspx#tfignore
You can permanently set this once-off in your AppData\Roaming for all solutions (old & new)!
In your %AppData%\NuGet\NuGet.Config file, add the following just before the </configuration> XML tag...
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="C:\NuGetPackages" />
</config>
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
...you can specify any path you want - the important thing is putting it OUTSIDE your TFS workspace!
Now you never have to worry about that stuff again. Your solution folder will not contain any packages anymore; all solutions will default to using your custom packages location instead.
NOTE - This works is on a per-user basis.
Set your solution to restore on build, the package folder and packages file will be checked in but the packages won't.
If you are using Git with TFS you need to add a ".gitignore" file. You can do this in "team project | Settings | 'add ignore file'". Then open the file and uncomment the built in ignore statement for Nuget Packages.
If you are using TFVC and you have Local Workspaces configured you can use the ".tfignore" file that honours an identical format to the Git file. I think you need "packages/".
This didn't work for me quite on visual studio online and VS2013.
Right Click Solution > Enable NuGet Package Restore. This will add the Nuget.config file to solution
Add the .tfignore. I normally do this by adding a text file to the solution root, letting it detect that and then exclude by clicking 'detected add' > right click ignore.
Add the packages to .tfignore and tell it to include repositories.config
From the other comments it seems your milage may vary at this point. This is what I do:
Check everything in, including any packages.
Delete all packages in your solution and then check in this change (this will remove the packages from TFS)
Open the solution and build which will add the packages to the project but TFS will not pick them up.
The solution that worked for me was to create both a .tfignore and the following setting in the Nuget.Config:
<configuration>
...
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
...
</configuration>
My .tfignore contains this line:
\packages
[I'm using Visual Studio 2015 Update 2]
This is not ideal, and is currently logged as an open issue on github/nuget:
Make it easier to omit packages from TFVC #493
Terje's answer doesn't work all the time for me, sometimes it will work for a while, but then it will pend a load of "adds" for me all over again.
The only way I have found to solve this permanently is to Cloak the packages folder in my Workspace.
For example:
Type Server Local
============================================
Active $/Work/Main C:\Code\Main
Cloaked $/Work/Main/Packages
I had the same issue. /packages should work but didn't for me. packages*.* did work.

Visual Studio local workspace + Enable Nuget Package Restore (disableSourceControlIntegration)

I was happy with disableSourceControlIntegration = true (and /packages/ not checked-in to TFS) in server workspace.
Now I decided to try local workspace and boom - it finds thousands of 'Detected Changes' in /packages/, which should be ignored because of disableSourceControlIntegration = true in my NuGet.Config
Anyone got local workspace and package restore working together?
I believe that adding .tfignore is a really bad option.
Btw, I'm using VS13.
In your solution directory root, create a folder called .nuget and add a nuget.config with the following contents.
<configuration>
<solution>
<add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
</solution>
</configuration>
Additional configuration settings can be found here: https://docs.nuget.org/docs/reference/nuget-config-settings
You might also need to close/reopen Visual Studio and have to revert pending changes in TFS Source Control for your \packages folder (if you have pending additions).

remove nuget package restore from solution

I added the recent nuget package restore feature to a solution using 'Enable NuGet Package Restore':
http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/using-nuget-without-committing-packages
However it broke my build server and I didn't have the time to fix it, so I wanted to remove it. There's no option for that as far as I know, so I removed the following line manually from all my *.csproj files:
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" />
The problem now is that every time my *.csproj files are checked out or open my solution, the line is automatically added again, breaking my build if I accidentally check it in :(
Any ideas how I can remove it permanently?
UPDATE: despite the answer below it still keeps coming back when opening the solution, anyone with the same problem?
I didn't look very well, there's another property added to the project files:
<RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages>
Just have to remove this as well as all these lines manually from all *.csproj files:
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" />
UPDATE:
Turns out it's a persistent little bugger, if you're manually editing your project files, make sure to close the solution and delete all the lines from the project at once, otherwise they're just added again once the project reloads...
UPDATE2:
Delete the .nuget folder from the solution root too
UPDATE3:
A later version of NuGet adds another section that you need to remove:
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>
</PropertyGroup>
<Error Condition="!Exists('$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\NuGet.targets'))" />
</Target>
Update4
Inside the NuGet.Targets located in the .nuget folder, there is another section that gets added to new projects... switch it to false.
<!-- We need to ensure packages are restored prior to assembly resolve -->
<BuildDependsOn Condition="$(RestorePackages) == 'false'">
RestorePackages;
$(BuildDependsOn);
</BuildDependsOn>
To disable Nuget Package Restore:
Delete .nuget folder
Remove specific lines from all .csproj files
Lines to remove:
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" />
<RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages>
Note: Make sure you do all changes in one go before reloading solution or else it will add them back.
This is based on the following article:
http://bartwullems.blogspot.no/2012/08/disable-nuget-package-restore.html
Also, you might want to double-check that this option is disabled:
http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/using-nuget-without-committing-packages
Isn't it this setting here?
Options... -> Nuget Package Manager -> [uncheck] Allow Nuget to download missing packages
I'm using Visual Studio Professional + Resharper 8.2
Solutions currently using MSBuild-Integrated package restore can be migrated to Automatic Package Restore. From what I understand, this should help those who are encountering CI build issues. (Please correct me if I am mistaken).
Please refer to the document on the nuget website: Migrating MSBuild-Integrated solutions to use Automatic Package Restore at http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/migrating-to-automatic-package-restore
There is information there for converting with and without TFS.
David Ebbo also posted some information at http://blog.davidebbo.com/2014/01/the-right-way-to-restore-nuget-packages.html
We actually have a blog post about it and at the end of the post a powershell script was mentioned to help with the migration.
http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/migrating-to-automatic-package-restore
NuGet has a blog post about migrating to automatic package restore:
http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/migrating-to-automatic-package-restore
There is a powershell script referenced in the blog post that will take care of removing the necessary lines automatically (and recursively):
https://github.com/owen2/AutomaticPackageRestoreMigrationScript/blob/master/migrateToAutomaticPackageRestore.ps1
Offering a Disable NuGet Package Restore option directly is marked as Won't Fix:
https://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/1883
I had the same issue. What I ended up doing:
1) go into each project .csproj file in the solution, open it in notepad then removed the portion of the xml and saved.
2)Then I removed the all of the package.config files in the entire solution.
3)Then I had to remove the .nuget and package folders.
At this point, I had a completely NuGet free solution.
4)Then I manually referenced any needed DLLs and hit compile and the solution ran like a champ without the NuGet packages being needed.
I followed the accepted solution to no avail using 2012. This did work though,
Completely close the VS
Update the <RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages> to <RestorePackages>false</RestorePackages> and delete the <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" /> line
Also renamed the nuget.exe to nuget.exe.NotExe
For anyone still needing to clean up a project using the old style NuGet package restore, the IFix tool available here automates the process.
Just run the installer (IFix will be added to PATH) and then run the following:
IFix nugetrestore --fix
You can run it in check mode first to see what it will clean up:
IFix nugetrestore --check
Go to your solution directory where you have [$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets]
.nuget folder and nuget.targets file under it delete the folder,
and change remove lines from your csproj for once last time.
The problem won't come back to bug you again.
Remove the packages.config file within your solution.
I accidentally enabled this "package restore" option while opening my project in VS2012 RC and started getting errors that looked something like:
"Error 1 Unable to locate 'C:\FolderX\SomeProject.nuget\nuget.exe'"
To fix the error I followed the above instructions, opened open each project file in notepad and removed that RestorePackage line.
I was able to resolve this issue by taking these steps:
1) make sure you take a backup of all your current checked-out files changes.
2) physically delete the solution folder from your C:\ (path that is mapped to TFS).
3) get latest from TFS for your solution.
4) copy (if any) your changes from the backup you took in step-1.
hope that helps !
I ran into the exact same problem and tried to remove all .nuget and RestorePackage tags from the project files but one project just wouldn't reload not matter how thoroughly I examined it for .nuget and RestorePackages tags. I guess there's some hidden references to this somewhere.
In the end it was easier to just copy the files and create a new project and import it to the solution.
Nuget sucks. Just remove nugets and remove or comment package elements from packages.config in root directory of the projects where this is a problem. Use direct references into some lib folder instead.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
<!--<package id="EntityFramework" version="6.0.2" targetFramework="net45" />-->
</packages>

How to configure where NuGet.exe Command Tool line looks for packages

We have successfully set up a couple of local package repositories using the NuGet.Server package and hosted them on a local IIS webserver. We are able to connect from the Package Manager and install no problem. So these are working fine.
In order for us not to have to check in our packages folder we have included the following command line in each project file that includes NuGet references. This works, if the NuGet.exe is in the path on the CI build agent.
However, I would like to move the source configuration form the command line in every project file and put it in just one place, preferably where other pesky developers can't change it ;)
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="nuget install $(ProjectDir)packages.config -s
http://domain:80/DataServices/Packages.svc/;
http://domain:81/DataServices/Packages.svc/
-o $(SolutionDir)packages" />
</Target>
Is there a better way?
Yes there is ;-)
Take a look at NuGetPowerTools. After running Install-Package NuGetPowerTools, it adds a .nuget folder to your $(SolutionDir) containing nuget.exe, nuget msbuild targets and settings (which you will need to check in).
After that, you simply run Enable-PackageRestore and it sets up msbuild targets into your visual studio project files which will make sure that packages will be fetched in a prebuild step, even on your build server, without checking in any packages. (don't forget to check in the .nuget folder though!).
This way, you simply manage the nuget package sources in a nuget msbuild settings file (in the .nuget folder) central to your solution, instead of in each project.
Cheers,
Xavier
I finally got NuGetPowerTools to install after the advice from digitaltrust on http://blog.davidebbo.com
Although NuGetPowerTools solved my problem, it was overkill for what I wanted. It requires that you check in to version control a .nuget folder that it creates in your solution root. The folder contains NuGet.exe, and a couple of target files. I don't like this as I think version control is for source code, not tools.
I came up with the following solution.
Save NuGet.exe to a folder on your local drive, both on dev and continuous integration machines. I chose C:\tools\nuget\
Add that filepath to the Path Environment Variable in all environments
On continuous integration machines, find %APPDATA%\NuGet\NuGet.Config and enter the following
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<packageSources>
<add key="LocalRepositoryName" value="http://Domain/DataServices/Packages.svc/" />
</packageSources>
You can add more than one entry to packageSources and NuGet will search them in the order that they appear
The after build code from my question can now be amended to the following.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="nuget install $(ProjectDir)packages.config
-o $(SolutionDir)packages" />
</Target>
The end result of this is that whenever the approved repository location is changed, the config has to be changed in only one place rather than in every csproj file. Also, it is the continuous integration server administrators who determine that location, not the developers in their command line calls.

Resources