How does TFS know about nuget?

Question

From this article -

"However, there are cases where it’s not actually a person who’s doing the building and who therefore can’t provide consent this way. (And where Visual Studio isn’t even installed.) The prototypical example is a build server. In that case, NuGet will also look for an environment variable called EnableNuGetPackageRestore. To enable package restore for scenarios where the Visual Studio option is not practical, set this variable to true."

How does TFS even know how to call nuget? Do I install the nuget exe?

Answer 1

As you've stated in a comment, "Enable NuGet Package Restore" is no longer the recommended method for accomplishing this. The NuGet docs explain it best. Basically, because that method is integrated into MSBuild, packages that extend the build will be downloaded too late. While I'm not sure what packages do this currently it appears that there are big plans for the future of NuGet (the new ASP.NET vNext custom CLR implementation is one example of where it's headed).

The good news is that the alternative is really easy to set up. If you're in VS, you literally do nothing (unless you've disabled the automatic package restore in the past). If you have a build server you just have to make some small changes to your .proj file. If you're not familiar with MSBuild it may seem challenging but it's really quite simple. The secret is this chunk of code:

<Target Name="RestorePackages">
    <Exec Command="&quot;$(ToolsHome)NuGet\NuGet.exe&quot; restore &quot;%(Solution.Identity)&quot;" />
</Target>

Again, the details are in the docs (this one specifically). If you have any questions don't be afraid to reach out: the SO community is here to help!

Answer 2

If you set your solutions to restore NuGet packages, and then on the build server with the build account, open vs and set Allow NuGet to download missing packages during build in Visual Studio. Your builds should restore packages ok.

Answer 3

How does TFS even know how to call nuget? Do I install the nuget exe?

No, you should enable package restore for the solution which can be done from the context menu for the solution file in the solution explorer. This will add a folder named .nuget to your solution and in this folder you will find NuGet.exe.

If you add the solution to source control and build it on a build server the NuGet.exe executable will be used by the NuGet msbuild targets to restore packages from NuGet as part of the build.

So you do not need to install NuGet on the build server - it becomes part of your project and is placed under version control.