pack command (NuGet CLI)
Applies to: package creation • Supported versions: 2.7+
Creates a NuGet package based on the specified .nuspec or project file. The dotnet pack
command (see dotnet Commands) and msbuild -t:pack
(see MSBuild targets) may be used as alternates.
Important
Use dotnet pack
or msbuild -t:pack
for PackageReference based projects. Starting with NuGet version 6.5+, the pack command will error when attempting to pack these project types. Earlier versions would attempt to pack, but the generated package may not be correct.
Under Mono, creating a package from a project file is not supported. You also need to adjust non-local paths in the .nuspec
file to Unix-style paths, as nuget.exe doesn't convert Windows pathnames itself.
Usage
nuget pack <nuspecPath | projectPath> [options] [-Properties ...]
where <nuspecPath>
and <projectPath>
specify the .nuspec
or project file, respectively.
Options
-BasePath
Sets the base path of the files defined in the .nuspec file.
-Build
Specifies that the project should be built before building the package.
-ConfigFile
The NuGet configuration file to apply. If not specified,
%AppData%\NuGet\NuGet.Config
(Windows), or~/.nuget/NuGet/NuGet.Config
or~/.config/NuGet/NuGet.Config
(Mac/Linux) is used.-Exclude
Specifies one or more wildcard patterns to exclude when creating a package. To specify more than one pattern, repeat the -Exclude flag. See example below.
-ExcludeEmptyDirectories
Prevents inclusion of empty directories when building the package.
-ForceEnglishOutput
(3.5+) Forces nuget.exe to run using an invariant, English-based culture.
-?|-help
Displays help information for the command.
-IncludeReferencedProjects
Indicates that the built package should include referenced projects either as dependencies or as part of the package. If a referenced project has a corresponding
.nuspec
file that has the same name as the project, then that referenced project is added as a dependency. Otherwise, the referenced project is added as part of the package.-InstallPackageToOutputPath
Specify if the command should prepare the package output directory to support share as feed.
-MinClientVersion
Set the minClientVersion attribute for the created package. This value will override the value of the existing minClientVersion attribute (if any) in the
.nuspec
file.-MSBuildPath
(4.0+) Specifies the path of MSBuild to use with the command, taking precedence over
-MSBuildVersion
.-MSBuildVersion
(3.2+) Specifies the version of MSBuild to be used with this command. Supported values are 4, 12, 14, 15.1, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8, 15.9. By default the MSBuild in your path is picked, otherwise it defaults to the highest installed version of MSBuild.
-NoDefaultExcludes
Prevents default exclusion of NuGet package files and files and folders starting with a dot, such as
.svn
and.gitignore
.-NonInteractive
Suppresses prompts for user input or confirmations.
-NoPackageAnalysis
Specifies that pack should not run package analysis after building the package.
-OutputDirectory
Specifies the folder in which the created package is stored. If no folder is specified, the current folder is used.
-OutputFileNamesWithoutVersion
Specify if the command should prepare the package output name without the version.
-PackagesDirectory
Specifies the packages folder.
-p|-Properties
Should appear last on the command line after other options. Specifies a list of properties that override values in the project file; see Common MSBuild Project Properties for property names. The Properties argument here is a list of token=value pairs, separated by semicolons, where each occurrence of
$token$
in the.nuspec
file will be replaced with the given value. Values can be strings in quotation marks. Note that for the "Configuration" property, the default is "Debug". To change to a Release configuration, use-Properties Configuration=Release
. In general, Properties should be the same that were used during the corresponding project build, in order to avoid potentially strange behavior.-SolutionDirectory
Specifies the solution directory.
-Suffix
(3.4.4+) Appends a suffix to the internally generated version number, typically used for appending build or other pre-release identifiers. For example, using
-suffix nightly
will create a package with a version number like1.2.3-nightly
. Suffixes must start with a letter to avoid warnings, errors, and potential incompatibilities with different versions of NuGet and the NuGet Package Manager.-SymbolPackageFormat
When creating a symbols package, allows to choose between the
snupkg
andsymbols.nupkg
format.-Symbols
Specifies that the package contains sources and symbols. When used with a
.nuspec
file, this creates a regular NuGet package file and the corresponding symbols package. By default it creates a legacy symbol package. The new recommended format for symbol packages is .snupkg. See Creating symbol packages (.snupkg).-Tool
Specifies that the output files of the project should be placed in the
tools
folder within the package.-Verbosity [normal|quiet|detailed]
Specifies the amount of detail displayed in the output:
normal
(the default),quiet
, ordetailed
.-Version
Overrides the version number from the
.nuspec
file.
Also see Environment variables
Excluding development dependencies
Some NuGet packages are useful as development dependencies, which help you author your own library, but aren't necessarily needed as actual package dependencies.
The pack
command will ignore package
entries in packages.config
that have the developmentDependency
attribute set to true
. These entries will not be include as a dependencies in the created package.
For example, consider the following packages.config
file in the source project:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
<package id="jQuery" version="1.5.2" />
<package id="netfx-Guard" version="1.3.3.2" developmentDependency="true" />
<package id="microsoft-web-helpers" version="1.15" />
</packages>
For this project, the package created by nuget pack
will have a dependency on jQuery
and microsoft-web-helpers
but not netfx-Guard
.
Suppressing pack warnings
While it is recommended that you resolve all NuGet warnings during your pack operations, in certain situations suppressing them is warranted.
You can achieve that in the following way:
nuget.exe pack package.nuspec -Properties NoWarn=NU5104
Examples
nuget pack
nuget pack foo.nuspec
nuget pack foo.csproj
nuget pack foo.csproj -Properties Configuration=Release
nuget pack foo.csproj -Build -Symbols -Properties owners=janedoe,xiaop;version="1.0.5"
# Create a package from project foo.csproj, using MSBuild version 12 to build the project
nuget pack foo.csproj -Build -Symbols -MSBuildVersion 12 -Properties owners=janedoe,xiaop;version="1.0.5"
# Create a package from project foo.nuspec and the corresponding symbol package using the new recommended format .snupkg
nuget pack foo.nuspec -Symbols -SymbolPackageFormat snupkg
nuget pack foo.nuspec -Version 2.1.0
nuget pack foo.nuspec -Version 1.0.0 -MinClientVersion 2.5
nuget pack Package.nuspec -exclude "*.exe" -exclude "*.bat"
Note
The pack
command for SDK-style projects is not supported, use dotnet pack
or msbuild -t:pack
to pack this those projects instead.