How to update nuget packages in many solutions at once

Question

I have a repository with a lot of solutions. Sometimes I need to update one package to a newer version. It is way to slow opening each solution and updating via visual studio.

What is the best way to update a single package to a newer version for many solutions in the same git repository all at once?

Answer 1

What I did is just find replace the version numbers needed to be updated with the help of sublime. This solution is risky but the only one I have found.

• I updated the references in the solution files and the version numbers in the package.config files.

For example: EntityFramework version 4.3.0 to version 6.0.0

1. Update the solution files Find with regex: <Reference Include="EntityFramework((?s).*?)</Reference>
   Where: *.csproj
   Replace with: <Reference Include=\"EntityFramework, Version=6.0.0.0\">\n\t\t<HintPath>$\(SolutionDir\)\\packages\\EntityFramework.6.0.0\\lib\\net45\\EntityFramework.dll<\/HintPath>\n\t<\/Reference>

2. Update the package files Find with regex: <package id="EntityFramework" version="((?s).*?)" targetFramework="net45" />
   Where: packages.config
   Replace with: <package id="EntityFramework" version="6.0.0" targetFramework="net45" />

Answer 2

NuGet comes with different frontends, one being a command line application (Download) that also allows to update package references. Thomas Ardal provided a nice PowerShell script that can be used to update packages across multiple solutions:

param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]$packageId
)

Get-ChildItem *.sln -recurse | %{.\\nuget.exe restore $_.fullname}

Get-ChildItem packages.config -Recurse `
  | Where-Object {$_ | Select-String -Pattern $packageId} `
  | %{.\\nuget.exe update -Id $packageId $_.FullName}

Please note that this method does not support to control the dependency behavior and will update dependencies to their highest available version.