Cannot build only one project of a solution in Azure Devops

Question

I am trying to create a new build pipeline using Azure Devops. I can built the whole solution, however I am not able to build for a single project in the same solution.

I am getting the following error:

The nuget command failed with exit code(1) and error(Cannot determine the packages folder to restore NuGet packages. Please specify either -PackagesDirectory or -SolutionDirectory.) Packages failed to restore

Can anybody please help me?

Answer 1

Build only one project of a solution in Azure Devops

To resolve this issue, you should specify a directory for nuget to save the restore nuget packages, like:

When I restore the nuget packages for one project by packages.config/project file, we should expend the option Advanced on the nuget restore task, then specify a directory, I set it as default packages, ..\packages. Then I test it, it restored successfully:

2019-02-01T06:18:22.1311238Z ##[section]Starting: NuGet restore

....

2019-02-01T06:18:28.3155511Z [command]C:\VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work\_tool\NuGet\4.3.0\x64\nuget.exe restore C:\VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work\5\s\TestSample\TestSample\TestSample.csproj -PackagesDirectory ..\packages -Verbosity Detailed -NonInteractive -ConfigFile C:\VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work\5\Nuget\tempNuGet_169.config

2019-02-01T06:18:37.0366771Z All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.
2019-02-01T06:18:37.0594978Z ##[section]Finishing: NuGet restore
2019-02-01T06:18:22.1311238Z ##[section]Starting: NuGet restore
2019-02-01T06:18:22.1319968Z ==============================================================================
2019-02-01T06:18:37.0366199Z C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\MSBuild\15.0\bin\msbuild.exe "C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\NuGetScratch\svd0ok2h.e2f.nugetinputs.targets" /t:GenerateRestoreGraphFile /nologo /nr:false /v:q /p:NuGetRestoreTargets="C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\NuGetScratch\bhkdd2rf.itk.nugetrestore.targets" /p:RestoreTaskAssemblyFile="C:\VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work\_tool\NuGet\4.3.0\x64\nuget.exe" /p:RestoreConfigFile="C:\VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work\5\Nuget\tempNuGet_169.config" /p:RestorePackagesPath="..\packages"
2019-02-01T06:18:37.0366350Z 
2019-02-01T06:18:37.0366771Z All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.
2019-02-01T06:18:37.0594978Z ##[section]Finishing: NuGet restore

The reason for the error:

When we only build or restore the nuget package for one project of a solution in Azure Devops, nuget restore the nuget packages to the default \packages folder under the solution folder, but since we do not specify the .sln file in the build/nuget restore task, nuget does not know where is the solution folder. Then nuget will throw that error. So, we should specify a directory for nuget to save the restore nuget packages.

Hope this helps.