Unable to use add NuGet package through the #addin directive

[freekind]

Our organisation has a custom NuGet repository for hosting our reusable libraries. By the meantime, we are exploring how cake works to integrate it to our CI process.

What You Are Seeing?

However, when I try to install a package from that local repo with the #addin directive, I keep getting the following error:

Could not find any assemblies compatible with .NETFramework,Version=v4.5.

Here's the code snippet I'm using.
#addin "nuget:file://mycustomrepo?package=mylocalpackage"

I've been reading a lot of threads about that error and I've done the following steps up to now:

• I successfully installed the package from the Visual Studio NuGet Package Manager;
• I successfully installed the package from the NuGet commandline;
• I downgraded the target framework of the assemblies behind my package to 4.5, just to see if it would make a difference. It doesn't.

Also tried different #addin syntax such as:
#addin "nuget:?package=mylocalpackage" - same result as my NuGet sources refer to the right repos.
#addin "nuget:?package=mynonexistinglocalpackage" - I get a coherent error message.

What is Expected?

I expect my package to be flawlessly installed the same way it is when I use another NuGet endpoint.

What version of Cake are you using?

0.21.1

Are you running on a 32 or 64 bit system?

32 bit system

What environment are you running on? Windows? Linux? Mac?

Windows 7, Visual Studio 2015.

Are you running on a CI Server? If so, which one?

not for that test.

How Did You Get This To Happen? (Steps to Reproduce)

1. create a NuGet package that complies to the NuGet standards and host it locally.

2. create a new Cake AddIn project in Visual Studio and create a new cake-build script;

3. Reference that package through the #addin directive in a new cake-build script (build.cake), as shown above.

4, Run the script through the Task Runner Explorer OR launch the script through the command line.

Output Log

From the commandline with cake.exe:

D:\PROJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1\Cake.Addin1>cake --verbosity=diagnostic
Module directory does not exist.
Analyzing build script...
Analyzing D:/PROJETS/Git/POCCake/Cake.MyModule1/Cake.Addin1/build.cake...
Processing build script...
Installing addins...
Installing NuGet package IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns...
Executing: "C:/WINDOWS/SysWOW64/nuget.exe" install "IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Healt
h.Cake.AddIns" -OutputDirectory "D:/PROJETS/Git/POCCake/Cake.MyModule1/Cake.Addi
n1/tools/Addins" -Source "file://mycustomrepo" -Versi
on "1.0.1" -ExcludeVersion -NonInteractive
Could not find any assemblies compatible with .NETFramework,Version=v4.5.
Error: Cake.Core.CakeException: Failed to install addin 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.
Health.Cake.AddIns'.
à Cake.Core.Scripting.ScriptProcessor.InstallAddins(ScriptAnalyzerResult anal
yzerResult, DirectoryPath installPath)
à Cake.Core.Scripting.ScriptRunner.Run(IScriptHost host, FilePath scriptPath,
IDictionary`2 arguments)
à Cake.Commands.BuildCommand.Execute(CakeOptions options)
à Cake.CakeApplication.Run(CakeOptions options)
à Cake.Program.Main()

From the commandline with nuget, with the very same instruction pushed by cake:

D:\PROJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1\Cake.Addin1>C:\windows\syswow64\nuget.exe
install "IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns" -OutputDirectory "D:/PROJETS
/Git/POCCake/Cake.MyModule1/Cake.AddIn1/tools/Addins" -Source "file://mycustomrepo" -Version "1.0.1" -ExcludeVersion -NonInteractive
Feeds used:
C:\Users\leddcf.nuget\packages
file://mycustomrepo

Attempting to gather dependency information for package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.
Health.Cake.AddIns.1.0.1' with respect to project 'D:/PROJETS/Git/POCCake/Cake.M
yModule1/Cake.AddIn1/tools/Addins', targeting 'Any,Version=v0.0'
Gathering dependency information took 93.37 ms
Attempting to resolve dependencies for package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Ca
ke.AddIns.1.0.1' with DependencyBehavior 'Lowest'
Resolving dependency information took 0 ms
Resolving actions to install package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns.
1.0.1'
Resolved actions to install package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns.1
.0.1'
Retrieving package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns 1.0.1' from 'file:
//mycustomrepo'.
Retrieving package 'Ninject 3.2.2' from 'C:\Users\leddcf.nuget\packages'.
Adding package 'Ninject.3.2.2' to folder 'D:\PROJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1
Cake.AddIn1\tools\Addins'
Added package 'Ninject.3.2.2' to folder 'D:\PROJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1\C
ake.AddIn1\tools\Addins'
Successfully installed 'Ninject 3.2.2' to D:/PROJETS/Git/POCCake/Cake.MyModule1/
Cake.AddIn1/tools/Addins
Adding package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns.1.0.1' to folder 'D:\P
ROJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1\Cake.AddIn1\tools\Addins'
Added package 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns.1.0.1' to folder 'D:\PR
OJETS\Git\POCCake\Cake.MyModule1\Cake.AddIn1\tools\Addins'
Successfully installed 'IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns 1.0.1' to D:/P
ROJETS/Git/POCCake/Cake.MyModule1/Cake.AddIn1/tools/Addins
Executing nuget actions took 144.1 ms

The structure of the package is as follows:

[sebandres]

Hi @freekind,

This is a by-product of a behaviour from NuGet. If you specify the source of the package then the Cake NuGetPackageInstaller will add a -Source {mycustomsource} argument to the nuget call causing it to only use that source for that package and all the dependencies needed. In your case I am guessing that IAFG.IA.RC.Development.Health.Cake.AddIns uses a dependency that is not on your local cache nor is on the custom package source hence this call fails.

The solution for this is to remove the source from the addin directive #addin "nuget:?package=mylocalpackage", add a Nuget.config file to the root of your project and add that custom package source to the list of packageSources as such:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <add key="customSource" value="file://mycustomrepo" />
  </packageSources>
</configuration>

That should hint nuget to look for packages also on that source (on top of you machine level config).

More on the Nuget install command.
Line of code from NuGetPackageInstaller.cs that causes the behaviour to trigger.

Regards,

Seb.

[sebandres]

On second thought @patriksvensson, given this feature is bound to confuse people more than it will help them, shouldn't we remove this option altogether and direct people through documentation and examples to add their custom sources on the project Nuget.Config instead?

Because if we are honest, what are the odds that a package on a custom feed will not rely at all on a component that is on the nuget feed at some dependency level. And given that you can't add multiple URLs to the addInn directive (nor would I think that is a nice solution), this becomes a not so useful feature to begin with.

[devlead]

@freekind 0.21.1 targets .NET 4.5 and requires assemblies and dependencies to be in the net45 moniker in your nuget packages, make sure the nuget package has the correct folder structure, the error indicates it's not.

A nuget a mutitargetet nuget folder struncture could look something like this:

└───lib
       ├───net20
       ├───net35
       ├───net40
       ├───net45
       ├───net46
       ├───net47
       ├───netstandard1.0
       ├───netstandard1.3
       └───netstandard1.6

If the assemblies are in a newer version than the consuming assembly it won't work, so verify that the package is in the correct folder, a nuget is just a zip file so you could just unzip it or use something like the NuGet Package Explorer tool which will visualize package targets and dependencies.

The current target framework for Cake if .NET 4.6 for Cake.exe or netstandard1.6 for Cake.CoreCLR.

@sebandres in the next release we won't be using nuget.exe by default, from Cake 0.23.0 you can opt-in to the inproc new behavior with configuration documented here.

Essentially setting environment variable CAKE_NUGET_USEINPROCESSCLIENT to true or passing parameter --nuget_useinprocessclient=true,

As we there have full control of the installations process it's easier for us to support edge cases, or Cake specific scenarios. This will add proper support for referencing addins/assemblies with dependencies, we've got no plans of removing the ability to specify a source from the addin directive.

[sebandres]

Hi @devlead,

Thanks for the response. I just had a look at the new NuGetPackageInstaller you mentioned and it does seem to address this problem by aggregating the sources on top of the provided on the addin url which is great news!

I'll opt in on our projects and give that a go.

Regards,

Seb.