C# – MsBuild does not find restored NuGet-Packages on Visual Studio Online

azure-devopscmsbuildnuget

I try to build a solution stored in an external GIT-Repository on Visual Studio Online.

It has the following steps:

1: Git Restore – Works

2: NuGet Restore – Works

3: Build – Does NOT work

My first guess when looking at the logs is that MsBuild is not looking for the Packages where NuGet had stored them.
Some Lines from NuGet Restore:

2018-03-14T21:10:11.0352862Z Completed installation of AngleSharp 0.9.9
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353230Z Adding package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0353563Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'
2018-03-14T21:10:11.0354972Z Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages' from source 'https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json' 'Microsoft.SharePointOnline.CSOM.16.1.7317.1200' to folder 'D:\a\1\s\packages'

Some lines from MsBuild:

018-03-14T21:10:21.2105399Z PrepareForBuild:
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2105793Z   Creating directory "bin\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:21.2424947Z   Creating directory "obj\Release\".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3569560Z ResolveAssemblyReferences:
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3570425Z   Primary reference "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL".
2018-03-14T21:10:30.3670272Z ##[warning]C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2041,5): Warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.

My solution/packages structure is:

....\mysolution\myproject\myproject.csproj
....\mysolution\myproject\packages.config

Current Config:
NUGET
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So how can I change the Nuget and/or msbuild-behavior to make this work?

(Update): To clear this up: I have this problem with every package. They all are in the packages.config, each one is downloaded from Nuget, but each one also isn't found from MsBuild

(Update2) The Commands generated are currently the following:
NUGET:

D:\a\_tool\NuGet\4.4.1\x64\nuget.exe restore D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\packages.config -PackagesDirectory D:\a\1\a\packages -Verbosity Detailed -NonInteractive -ConfigFile D:\a\1\Nuget\tempNuGet_22.config

MSBUILD:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild.exe" "D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365\AweCsomeO365.csproj" /nologo /nr:false /dl:CentralLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll";"RootDetailId=(GUID)|SolutionDir=D:\a\1\s\AweCsomeO365"*ForwardingLogger,"D:\a\_tasks\VSBuild_(GUID)\1.126.0\ps_modules\MSBuildHelpers\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.DistributedTask.MSBuild.Logger.dll" /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation=D:\a\1\a /p:ReferencePath=D:\a\1\a\packages /p:platform="anyCPU" /p:configuration="Release" /p:VisualStudioVersion="15.0" /p:_MSDeployUserAgent="VSTS_(GUID)_build_4_22

I replaced the GUIDs; tempNuGetConfig is something that seems to be generated by VSTS dynamically

Still. even if the log states that nuget stores the packages

Added package 'AngleSharp.0.9.9' to folder 'D:\a\1\a\packages'

MsBuild does not seem to find them there:

 For SearchPath "D:\a\1\a\packages".
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625155Z           Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.winmd", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625456Z           Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.dll", but it didn't exist.
2018-03-16T13:57:42.4625730Z           Considered "D:\a\1\a\packages\AngleSharp.exe", but it didn't exist.

VSTS-Configurationvalues:

MsBuild: /p:ReferencePath=$(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages

Nuget-DestiantionDirectory: $(Build.StagingDirectory)\packages

(update3): I have no solution file, but only a csproj-file in that repository

Best Answer

The issue was that inside the project there was a hintpath for the packages directing to a location that was not within the GIT-Repository (and shouldn't):

  <Reference Include="AngleSharp, Version=0.9.9.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e83494dcdc6d31ea, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <HintPath>..\..\AweCsome365Test\packages\AngleSharp.0.9.9\lib\net45\AngleSharp.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>

My original approach was to define a target directory to NuGet and a Source Directory for MSBuild to use another location to the packages that both understand.

The issue though (as far as I understand) is, that NuGet always creates a subfolder-structure "./packages/{PackagesName}/lib/net45/{file}" and MSBuild does not look recursivly when setting "./packages" as source path.

The above is just an explanation for the future guy running into the same problem

So my solution was to mimic the local behavior for nuget and changing the output directory to match the HintPath (even if there is no "AweCsome365Test")-directory in the repository: Nuget Destination directory setting

(I will leave this question open as this solution smells fishy. If anyone has a better solution that allows to chain nuget and msbuild without using the HintPath I am happily willing to spend my bounty on it)

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