Omitting NuGet packages in source control systems

Developers typically omit NuGet packages from their source control repositories and rely instead on package restore to reinstall a project's dependencies before a build.

The reasons for relying on package restore include the following:

1. Distributed version control systems, such as Git, include full copies of every version of every file within the repository. Binary files that are frequently updated lead to significant bloat and lengthens the time it takes to clone the repository.
2. When packages are included in the repository, developers are liable to add references directly to package contents on disk rather than referencing packages through NuGet, which can lead to hard-coded path names in the project.
3. It becomes harder to clean your solution of any unused package folders, as you need to ensure you don't delete any package folders still in use.
4. By omitting packages, you maintain clean boundaries of ownership between your code and the packages from others that you depend upon. Many NuGet packages are maintained in their own source control repositories already.

Although package restore is the default behavior with NuGet, some manual work is necessary to omit packages—namely, the packages folder in your project—from source control, as described in this article.

Omitting packages with Git

Use the .gitignore file to ignore NuGet packages (.nupkg) the packages folder, and project.assets.json, among other things. For reference, see the sample .gitignore for Visual Studio projects:

The important parts of the .gitignore file are:

# Ignore NuGet Packages
*.nupkg

# The packages folder can be ignored because of Package Restore
**/[Pp]ackages/*

# except build/, which is used as an MSBuild target.
!**/[Pp]ackages/build/

# Uncomment if necessary however generally it will be regenerated when needed
#!**/[Pp]ackages/repositories.config

# NuGet v3's project.json files produces more ignorable files
*.nuget.props
*.nuget.targets

# Ignore other intermediate files that NuGet might create. project.lock.json is used in conjunction
# with project.json (NuGet v3); project.assets.json is used in conjunction with the PackageReference
# format (NuGet v4 and .NET Core).
project.lock.json
project.assets.json

Omitting packages with Team Foundation Version Control

Note

Follow these instructions if possible before adding your project to source control. Otherwise, manually delete the packages folder from your repository and check in that change before continuing.

To disable source control integration with TFVC for selected files:

1. Create a folder called .nuget in your solution folder (where the .sln file is).

   • Tip: on Windows, to create this folder in Windows Explorer, use the name .nuget. with the trailing dot.

2. In that folder, create a file named NuGet.Config and open it for editing.

3. Add the following text as a minimum, where the disableSourceControlIntegration setting instructs Visual Studio to skip everything in the packages folder:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <configuration>
       <solution>
           <add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
       </solution>
   </configuration>
   

4. If you are using TFS 2010 or earlier, cloak the packages folder in your workspace mappings.

5. On TFS 2012 or later, or with Visual Studio Team Services, create a .tfignore file as described on Add Files to the Server. In that file, include the content below to explicitly ignore modifications to the \packages folder on the repository level and a few other intermediate files. (You can create the file in Windows Explorer using the name a .tfignore. with the trailing dot, but you might need to disable the "Hide known file extensions" option first.):

   # Ignore NuGet Packages
   *.nupkg
   
   # Ignore the NuGet packages folder in the root of the repository. If needed, prefix 'packages'
   # with additional folder names if it's not in the same folder as .tfignore.   
   packages
   
   # Omit temporary files
   project.lock.json
   project.assets.json
   *.nuget.props
   

6. Add NuGet.Config and .tfignore to source control and check in your changes.