Upgrading large solution to .NET 6

Question

There is some good documentation here how to manually upgrade to .NET 6: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/migration/50-to-60

But I have a large solution with many projects that references many of NuGet-packages that need to be upgraded. Is there any automatic way to do upgrade the project files?

Answer 1

I used to do it with the "replace-in-files option" and NuGet-Manager in Visual Studio. Worked out for me in a 181 projects solution.

1. Open any *.csproj-file

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

2. Press Shift+Ctrl+H

3. Open NuGet-Manager for Solution (not project itself). Select all packages and update them all (if possible, else leave out the once you know are not compatible)

Answer 2

You can set properties for all projects in the solution using a Directory.Build.props file, see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-your-build?view=vs-2022#directorybuildprops-and-directorybuildtargets

In your case you'd use something like this:

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Place the file in the root of your solution, above all project folders.