Creating one NuGet package from multiple projects in one solution

Question

I have a solution that I'm working on that contains 4 class library projects (A, B, C, D). A and B could be considered the top level projects in the solution. Both A and B reference C, and D stands alone.

These four projects represent a group of services that I have made that handle an automated workflow. They are all closely related, and will only be used in one location (the service manager) so I don't want to split them into different solutions.

My problem is that I want to create a single NuGet package that will contain all 4 libraries, without having to build them all and gather up their DLLs manually. I know that I could technically achieve this by having either A or B reference the remaining projects, but that's not a true relationship and I feel it should be avoided.

I've done a lot of searching on this problem and I can't find a solution other than manually collecting the DLLs and building the package myself. Is there a way to achieve the result that I want using NuGet's features/abilities?

NOTE: In case the tags don't make it clear I'm currently using VS2010 with a TeamCity build server. In case it's relevant I'm also using Git through a Stash server.

EDIT: I just realized this might be important enough to mention. These projects do reference other NuGet packages that I will need to mark as dependencies.

Answer 1

You have to define your own nuspec manifest. You can list containing assemblies in files section:

<file src="A\bin\Release\A.dll" target="lib\net40" /> <file src="B\bin\Release\B.dll" target="lib\net40" /> ... 

For more details read NuSpec reference.

Then reference that nuspec file in NuPack build step instead of proj.

Answer 2

If you have downloaded NuGet.exe You can run: nuget pack Myproject.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects and this should include all of your projects. Here's a note from the NuGet docs:

If the project references other projects, you can add the referenced projects as part of the package, or as dependencies with -IncludeReferencedProjects option. This is done recursively. For example, suppose you have project A.csproj, which references B.csproj and C.csproj, while B.csproj references D.csproj & E.csproj, C.csproj references F.csproj & G.csproj. Then, when you run:

nuget pack A.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects 

the generated package will contain files from projects B, C, D, E, F & G, in addition to files from project A.

If a referenced project has a corresponding nuspec file with the same name, then that referenced project is added as a dependency instead. Using the same example, suppose now there is file C.nuspec in the same directory as project file C.csproj. When you run:

nuget pack A.csproj -IncludeReferencedProjects 

the generated package will contain files from projects B, D, E, in addition to files from project A, and the package has dependency on C.

Please also see the Command line reference.