17

Closed

Enabling Nuget Package Restore doesn't always work

description

  1. Create a project.
  2. Install a package e.g. EntityFramework
  3. (close solution) Delete "packages" folder
  4. (reopen solution) Enable Nuget Package Restore
  5. Build solution.
no attempt to restore package.

error :
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1360,9): warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "EntityFramework". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
Closed Sep 20, 2012 at 9:44 PM by deepakverma
verified, it builds fine after enable nuget is set.

comments

JeffHandley wrote Mar 16, 2012 at 7:11 PM

It looks like steps 3 and 4 are in the wrong order. But it would be good to understand why enabling package restore requires the packages folder to be in place.

el_tone wrote May 1, 2012 at 12:08 PM

it seems like the <RestorePackages>true</RestorePackages> line is not being added to the csproj in this case.
This happened to me after trying to enable package restore after a clean source control checkout.

JeffHandley wrote May 15, 2012 at 8:36 PM

@aldion this behavior might be different in 1.8. Please verify.

aldion wrote May 15, 2012 at 10:53 PM

This still repro with latest 1.8/2.0

JeffHandley wrote May 17, 2012 at 9:12 PM

@anurse please investigate this to understand why we need the packages folder to exist when enabling package restore.

We should expect users to fall into this situation where they choose to not check in their packages folder but they forget (or don't know) to enable package restore first.

shtreber wrote Jun 6, 2012 at 11:06 PM

confirming this still DOESN'T work with latest nuget version (1.8.0)

aldion wrote Jun 28, 2012 at 10:52 PM

@anurse This is why it happens, there's a check looking for packages before enabling package restore (the fix could be on packages.config instead ?) :
    private void EnablePackageRestore(Project project, IVsPackageManager packageManager)
    {
        var projectManager = packageManager.GetProjectManager(project);
        if (projectManager.LocalRepository.GetPackages().IsEmpty())
        {
            // don't enable package restore for the project if it doesn't have at least one 
            // nuget package installed
            return;
        }

        EnablePackageRestore(project);
    }

shailendrab wrote Jul 3, 2012 at 9:15 AM

Package restore test on VS2010

To explore package restore feature, I followed the official Nuget website help from the link http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/using-nuget-without-committing-packages

Executed following steps to try using the package restore feature :
  1. Created a new class library project.
  2. Installed the target package.
  3. Add a reference and used a public method from the package installed.
  4. Build the project successfully.
  5. Clean and close the solution.
  6. Delete the packages folder.
  7. Reopen the solution.
  8. Enable the package restore as suggested in link. I observed although it is expected to modify the project csproj file, surprisingly it did not.
  9. Try building the solution and it will fail (as I observed). No attempt to get the package.
  10. I tried following to get it to work:
a. Add this line in the csproj file

<Import Project="$(SolutionDir).nuget\nuget.targets" />

This is required as this is the script that loads the packages (through running build tasks). Reopen solution. Try building the solution and it fails. No attempt to get the package.

b. Ensure the packages.config file is present in the project folder and has the correct package added. This is required as this file is referred by the nuget.targets file in the project directory.

Close the solution and open it again. Try build the solution and it fails. Still no attempt to get the package.

c. Enable the restorePackages option.

<RestorePackages Condition=" '$(RestorePackages)' == '' ">true</RestorePackages>
Close the solution and open it again. Try build the solution and this time it will successfully downloaded the package from store and solution is build successfully. Surprised as this should have been
done by Nuget.
--- Optional step ---
d. Add package source path in nuget.targets file similar to:

<PackageSource Include="\NetworkShare\Builds\MyPackages" />

So if you do not add a PackageSource in nuget.targets file, how did it find out the package location? Well, by default it will use the registered sources under %APPDATA%\NuGet\NuGet.Config.

Am I missing something (doing it incorrectly). My Question is, while the feature is cool can not we make it easy to use or enable at first instance without going through these (try and cross you figure) steps???

pmoutzo wrote Jul 11, 2012 at 3:53 PM

I have run into this in two different scenarios. First, following your example shailenrab on my local dev box. I clean the solution, close it, delete the packages folder and go to the command line to execute MSBUILD on my own. It fails completely with references missing for the cproj file inside the sln. The build server fails with the same errors. I cut and pasted the nuget.exe -install command from the build script and run that in a console window, and I get the message "All packages listed in packages.config are already installed". But they aren't. I deleted the packages folder! I give up and open the sln in VS2010 and the Package Console gives me a quick warning that packages are missing in this solution and offers an Enable button for me to restore them. Click the button and everything is back to normal. So it seems Package Restore only works in VS...msbuild fails if you get latest from TFS and attempt a build via a script or command line, and as a result so does my CI build on the build server. This means that I'm dead in the water. Unless someone has a work around that doesn't involve checking in the packages into TFS?

eddiegroves wrote Aug 8, 2012 at 6:29 AM

I've had this bug a few times when trying to enable package restore after I have used nuget and then deleted the packages folder.

The part that fails is modifying the csproj files.

The fix has been to manually create the packages folder and pull down the missing packages first (e.g using the command line), then use the GUI to 'Enable Package Restore'.

This is on a per project case as well.

AnthonySteele wrote Aug 22, 2012 at 12:32 PM

This, in my recent experience is a pretty common case which gives a disfunctional first impression of nuget.

i.e. Someone gets the source to a project and builds it. Build fails due to missing packages. nuget's "package restore" feature then fails even after setting the right options.

What worked finally was to
  • check Tools|Options|package manager|Package restore
  • right-click the solution and "enable package restore"
  • right-click a project in the solution and "Manage nuget packages".
Then you will finally get a bar across the top of this UI with a message that some packages are missing, click to get them. Clicking this button gets the packages.

JeffHandley wrote Sep 5, 2012 at 4:43 PM

@dotnetjunky - let's see if this can be addressed in NuGet 2.1. Please let us know your risk assessment on it though if you think it needs extra bake time (NuGet 2.2).

dotnetjunky wrote Sep 6, 2012 at 9:16 PM

The fix for this bug is low risk.

dotnetjunky wrote Sep 6, 2012 at 10:58 PM

Fixed in changeset 32790bbc42a7

esaulsberry wrote Nov 26, 2012 at 8:27 PM

I hate to say this but it sure doesn't look fixed here.
My NuGet version is 2.1.31002.9028, (VS 2012)
The packages are in a private package source.

Enable package restore is turned on for the solution.
Allow NuGet to restore packages during build is enabled.

<configuration>
<packageRestore>
<add key="enabled" value="True" />
</packageRestore>
<packageSources>
<add key="NuGet official package source" value="https://nuget.org/api/v2/" />
<add key="MyPrivateServer" value="\\MyPrivateNuGetServer\NUGET" />
</packageSources>

1) Add the required packages for the assembly
2) build - all is well
3) Check in to TFS
4) Close VS
5) Delete local directory (Simulating another dev getting the solution on a clean machine)
6) Fire up VS, get solution
7) Build - No packages are restored. Build fails.
Output:
1> All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.
1>C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(1578,5): warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "cognosdotnet_2_0". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.

hannespreishuber wrote Feb 5 at 6:22 PM

have exact same behavior .-STILL

Version 2.2.31210.9045

btw it's lame that there i have to type the infos from the visual Studio Dialog and can not copy

dotnetjunky wrote Feb 6 at 5:04 PM

Can you download the latest nightly build VSIX and try to see if it still fails? http://build.nuget.org/NuGet.Tools.vsix

Btw, you can press Control+C on the error dialog to copy the whole content.

SenthilGandhi wrote Feb 7 at 1:07 PM

i used the below command to fix the issue at the solution level
PM> Update-Package -Reinstall
  • this will uninstall and install all the packages again and most importantly reconfigures your .csproj to point to appropriate package location
Then you can check-in again to TFS

To fix the issue at the project level use
PM> Update-Package -Reinstall -ProjectName <foo>

barnarddale wrote May 2 at 2:37 PM

Thank you, @SenthilGandhi. This did indeed update the project files and get it to build. I was having this issue in Nuget 2.5.40416.9020.

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