MSBuild error finding the nuget.targets file

Question

I'm trying to build a csproj project with msbuild, but having all sorts of weird issues with it complaining about not finding nuget.targets.

I run the simplest of command line builds with MSbuild:

Msbuild Project.csproj 

And that works in my normal dev folder, but in another folder location, it fails with these errors:

error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\BuildAgent\work\CableSense\.nuget\nuget.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

That path (C:\BuildAgent\work\CableSense\.nuget\nuget.targets) is actually wrong and is missing a folder after work (work\somefolder\cablesense), but I'm at a loss why. More weirdly, if I build another project that is part of the solution, then that works, it's just this project.

The csproj specifies the location of the nuget.targets file like this:

<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" /> 

And the SolutionDir is defined like so:

<SolutionDir Condition="$(SolutionDir) == '' Or $(SolutionDir) == '*Undefined*'">..\</SolutionDir> 

Which is the same as the other project that does work. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Argh! After posting this I found the issue.. Basically, the project had dependencies on other projects. The csproj files for those related projects were slightly wrong - and had this as the SolutionDir:

<SolutionDir Condition="$(SolutionDir) == '' Or $(SolutionDir) == '*Undefined*'">..\..\CableSense\</SolutionDir> 

Which then caused the issue! Hope this helps someone else there, I feel bad for answering my own question now.

Answer 2

OK, so I got the same error now recently but the solution worked out to be different for me.

In the Build Definition, under Source Settings, I had the Source Control Folder set to the directory of the actual project instead of the root folder for the solution.

I know this is an old answered thread, but this might help someone who made the same mistake I did.