Can NuGet add a .cs file to the destination project?

Question

I want to create a NuGet package that adds a .cs file (a base class the package consumer is encouraged to later modify) to the root of the destination project during installation.

Is that possible? Everything I've found so far says "no, you can only install files below the package's directory".

Scrofulous

Answer 1

Just put your .cs file in a folder called "content", at the root of the package.

from the docs:

"you can layout a directory structure that follows the NuGet conventions.

tools - The tools folder of a package is for PowerShell scripts and programs accessible from the Package Manager Console. After the folder is copied to the target project, it is added to the `$env:Path (PATH) environment variable.

lib - Assemblies (.dll files) in the lib folder are added as assembly references when the package is installed.

content - Files in the content folder are copied to the root of your application when the package is installed.

Think of the Content folder as the root of your target application. For example, if I want a package to add an image in the /images directory of the target application, make sure to place the image in the Content/images folder of the package."

see: http://docs.nuget.org/docs/creating-packages/creating-and-publishing-a-package#From_a_convention_based_working_directory

Pile

Will updating the package work later when I do modifications? – Kilogram

Be aware that content is only copied when the package is installed, upgrading/ restoring the package doesn't change the content, therefore content cannot be upgraded with nuget. Nuget is really only useful for .net assembly dependencies. – Bourbonism

@Bourbonism is this still the case today? Do recent copies of NuGet allow "content" files to be updated? – Whip

@Todd, it seems to be the same nowadays: http://blog.nuget.org/20151118/nuget-3.3.html#content-files – Gibberish

You might want to check this solution out. It helps especially when you want to add source that is not expected to be modified. rhyous.com/2016/03/03/nuget-for-source-using-add-as-link-1 – Exostosis

Does this work when the target project is .netstandard? – Cavefish

Answer 2

You can also use the <files> section of the nuspec to move your file into the content folder when the package is being built:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package>
  <metadata>
    ...
  </metadata>
  <files>
    <file src="App.Template.config" target="content" />
    <file src="Program.template.cs" target="content" />
  </files>
</package>

Sowell

The directory wildcard, **, can be useful. The following copies all sub-directories of a ./Assets directory to ./content/Assets in your package (and excludes any files named readme.txt). <file src="Assets/**" target="content" exclude="**/readme.txt" /> – Abc

Is there a way to achieve this in the new dotnet SDK, without the use of a nuspec file? – Foy

Answer 3

If you are creating a PackageReference project like netstandard2.0 library, the following should work:

.nuspec file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2012/06/nuspec.xsd">
  <metadata minClientVersion="3.3.0">
    ...
    <contentFiles>
      <files include="**/Pages/Shared/*.*" buildAction="Content" />
    </contentFiles>
  </metadata>
  <files>
    <file src="bin\Release\netstandard2.0\*.dll" target="lib\netstandard2.0" />
    <file src="contentFiles\**\*" target="contentFiles" />
  </files>
</package>

This will copy the contentFiles folder to the project. You can specify different files by programming language and platform. If you would like to add to all of them place files under contentFiles/any/any.

Obregon