Updating All Packages

Issue: 431

There is currently no easy way to update all packages within a solution. In this iteration, we’ll update the Update-Package command to support updating all packages at the solution level and project level. We will not be adding support for this to the Add Package Dialog in this iteration, but will consider it for a future iteration. We just need to think through the UI for that.

Command Description
Update-Package Updates all packages in all projects.
Update-Package –Project ProjectName Updates all packages in the specified project
Update-Package PackageId Breaking Change: Updates the specified package in all projects rather than just the current project
Update-Package PackageKid –Project ProjectName No change: Updates the specified package in the specfied project only as before.
Update-Package –Safe  New –Safe flag only updates packages to the next “safe” version, which is the latest version with the same major and minor version number as the current package.

-Safe Flag

By default, the update command upgrades packages to the latest version in the feed. The new –Safe flag allows for a more conservative upgrade option. When using the –Safe flag, packages are only upgraded to the latest “build” (when describing a version as Major.Minor.Build.Revision).

In other words, if you have Elmah 1.0.0 installed, and 1.0.1, 1.0.2, and 1.1.0 are in the feed:

Command Description
Update-Package Elmah Updates Elmah to 1.1.0
Update-Package Elmah -Safe Updates Elmah to 1.0.2

Interesting cases

If you follow our general guidance on dependency versioning and only specify minimum versions, updating all packages will update them all to the latest version. However in some cases where version ranges are used, not every package will be upgraded to the latest versions. Let’s look at some interesting scenarios.

Dependencies On Min Versions

In the Feed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0, SuperLogger 1.1  (both depend on log4net version >= 1.0
  • log4net 1.0, 1.1, 1.2

Installed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • Log4Net 1.0

This is a simple case. Running Update-Package will upgrade both packages to the latest version.

Result (Installed):

  • SuperLogger 1.1
  • Log4Net 1.2

Dependencies With Version Ranges

In the Feed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0, SuperLogger 1.1 (depend on log4net version 1.0 – 1.1 inclusive.
  • log4net 1.0, 1.1, 1.2

Installed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • Log4Net 1.0

In this case, SuperLogger 1.1 has a dependency with a  version range. Thus Log4Net won’t be updated to the latest version because SuperLogger doesn’t support Log4Net 1.2.

Result (Installed):

  • SuperLogger 1.1
  • Log4Net 1.1

Dependencies With Some Version Range Conflicts

In the Feed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0, SuperLogger 1.1 (depend on log4net version 1.2 – 1.3 inclusive).
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0 (depends on log4net 1.0 – 1.1 inclusive)
  • log4net 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

Installed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0
  • log4net 1.0

This is really just a variant of the previous case. In this case, SuperLogger cannot be upgraded because the new version requires at least log4net 1.2. But MyLogDisplayer won’t work with Log4Net 1.2. The only thing that gets upgraded is log4net to 1.1 because 1.1 is compatible with all the other dependent packages.

Result (Installed):

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0
  • Log4Net 1.1

Dependencies With Total Version Range Conflicts

In the Feed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0, SuperLogger 1.1 (depend on log4net version 1.2 – 1.3 inclusive).
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0 (depends on log4net 1.0 – 1.1 inclusive)
  • log4net 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3

Installed:

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0
  • log4net 1.1

A slight variant of the previous case, in this case we already have log4net 1.1 installed, and as in the previous case, this cannot be upgraded to log4net 1.2. So nothing happens.

Result (Installed):

  • SuperLogger 1.0
  • MyLogDisplayer 1.0
  • Log4Net 1.1

Last edited Apr 29, 2011 at 5:41 PM by haacked, version 8

Comments

cevansx Oct 3, 2012 at 11:37 PM 
I third @svcoever for the same reason

bdelaney Sep 22, 2012 at 9:41 PM 
When Javascript libraries are moved out of the default project folder, Update_Package does not replace the original file. It just adds the new version to the \scripts folder.

mfreidge Aug 5, 2012 at 10:05 PM 
completed at 1.4 release of Nuget.

SkySigal Dec 9, 2011 at 12:57 AM 
I second @svdoever!

eugenepetrenko Jul 4, 2011 at 5:24 PM 
What is the difference between Update-Package called from VS and nuget.exe update command called from commandline?

svdoever May 3, 2011 at 9:58 PM 
Could you add a -force flag to force updating a package even if the version number did not change. Would be great during the development cycle when version numbers are not increased, but packages are changed.