How to specify different nuget package versions for different build configurations?

Question

I'd like to specify different package versions for different project configurations. I know what this would look like in my .csproj file for non-NuGet dependencies ("bare" DLLs), but I'd like to try and get this working with NuGet packages too.

The problem is that NuGet dependencies are specified in packages.config and not in the .csproj file, where I could use the MSBuild Condition attribute. This is compounded by the fact that there does not appear to be any documentation for packages.config and the attributes it supports.

Can this be done? How?

Answer 1

In 2019 PackageReference which is using the PackageReference node to manage NuGet dependencies directly within project files (as opposed to a separate packages.config file) you can do it.

<ItemGroup>
<!-- ... -->
<PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="9.0.1" Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net452'" />
<!-- ... -->
</ItemGroup>

For more information you can check this link.

Visual Studio 2017 Version 15.7 and later supports migrating a project from the packages.config management format to the PackageReference format.

Answer 2

This is not supported as far as I am aware with the packages.config file. You can only have one NuGet package with a specific id in a single project's packages.config file.

You can have different NuGet packages if you have different projects all sharing the same source files. This approach is typically used by library authors who have platform specific projects that need different NuGet packages. The project files can all live in the same directory with a packages.config file named after the project (e.g. packages.MyProject.config).

It may be simpler to not use NuGet to add the assemblies to your project. Just use NuGet to download the packages using nuget install and then directly reference the assemblies you need with conditions.

Answer 3

This is totally supported by MSBuild, although Visual Studio has no built-in support for it, so it requires some hand editing. We did this on the MvcSiteMapProvider project to support MVC versions 2-5.

  <ItemGroup Condition=" $(DefineConstants.Contains('MVC2')) ">
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup Condition=" $(DefineConstants.Contains('MVC3')) ">
    <!-- Due to the windows update MS14-059, we need this hack to ensure we can build MVC3 both on machines that have the update and those that don't -->
    <Reference Condition=" Exists('$(windir)\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Mvc\v4.0_3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.Mvc.dll') " Include="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL" />
    <Reference Condition=" !Exists('$(windir)\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Mvc\v4.0_3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.Mvc.dll') " Include="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.3.0.20105.1\lib\net40\System.Web.Mvc.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Razor.1.0.20105.408\lib\net40\System.Web.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages.1.0.20105.408\lib\net40\System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup Condition=" $(DefineConstants.Contains('MVC4')) ">
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.4.0.20710.0\lib\net40\System.Web.Mvc.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Razor.4.0.20715.0\lib\net40\System.Web.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages.4.0.20710.0\lib\net40\System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup Condition=" $(DefineConstants.Contains('MVC5')) ">
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Mvc, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.5.0.0\lib\net45\System.Web.Mvc.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.Razor.3.0.0\lib\net45\System.Web.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.WebPages, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages.3.0.0\lib\net45\System.Web.WebPages.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <Private>True</Private>
      <HintPath>..\packages\Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages.3.0.0\lib\net45\System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>

You can't use the NuGet package manager, either. You can create different dummy projects for each configuration you want to support, install the NuGet packages there and then copy over the packages files, the references in packages.config, and the references to them in the .csproj or .vbproj file.

The non-active files show up with a yellow icon, but the project will still compile and run this way.