Nesting files in Nuget package without PowerShell

Question

The title says it all. I have files that I want to nest during the installation of a NuGet package but can't use PowerShell scripts since they won't be run any longer (see here).

Are there any other ways to achieve this goal?

---

UPDATE: By nested I mean like *.resx and *.Designer.cs or *.xaml and code-behind files *.xaml.cs. I know I can achieve that by adding a <DependentUpon> element in the *.csproj file but I don't know how I can add that element without using PowerShell.

---

UPDATE2: init.ps1 runs the first time a package is installed in a solution. That won't cut it though. I would need the script to run when the package is installed into a project just like install.ps1 was run up to NuGet3.

---

UPDATE3: What I want to do is to add 3 files into the Properties folder of the target projects (Resources.resx, Resources.tt and Resources.Designer.cs). They are a replacement for the usual resources implementation. These files are installed by the nuget package when it is added to the project.

This is the part of the *.nuspec file that adds them to the Content folder of the package. As only one of them is actually content (the others being an Embedded Resource and Compile respectively) it would be nice to be able to set their build actions accordingly but one step at a time.

<files>
  <file src="Properties\Resources.resx" target="content\Properties\Resources.resx" />
  <file src="Properties\Resources.tt.pp" target="content\Properties\Resources.tt.pp" />
  <file src="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" target="content\Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" />
</files>

As these files are added to the projects I want the nesting inside the *.csproj file and not happen via a separate *.props file if that is somehow possible.

Answer 1

Packages can add MSBuild items like this to a project by using a .props file in the package. It would contain the same content that you would put into the .csproj file.

The down side of this is that the content cannot be modified by the user. If you need to modify the user's actual project file and copy content to the project folder you would have to include a .targets file in your package and set BeforeTargets="Build" on your target. This would give you a chance to run before build and make changes as needed.

The build folder works for both packages.config and PackageReference (NETCore SDK) projects. You can find more out about it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/create-packages/creating-a-package#including-msbuild-props-and-targets-in-a-package