.NET Core/Standard .csproj file, embedding license file without it being added to a project using the package?

Question

The past couple of days I've been getting warnings when compiling my .NET Standard/Core projects:

NuGet.Build.Tasks.Pack.targets(202, 5): [NU5125] The 'licenseUrl' element will be deprecated. Consider using the 'license' element instead.

To fix this, I switched to using <PackageLicenseFile>...</PackageLicenseFile> instead of <PackageLicenseUrl>...</PackageLicenseUrl>.

However, in order for this to work, I have to add the license file to my package (naturally), but it gets added to the content and contentFiles directory, which means that a project using this package gets the license file added to it.

Is there a way to embed the license file so that PackageLicenseFile works correctly, without adding the license file to projects using the package?

This is the section I added to the .csproj file in order to embed the license file:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Include="..\LICENSE" />
</ItemGroup>

The output package structure:

_rels
package
lib
contentFiles
 +- any
  +- netstandard2.0
   +- LICENSE
content
 +- LICENSE

Could I, for instance, add it to a separate folder inside the package, other than content?

Answer 1

The recommended way of packing a licence file with the package is

<PropertyGroup>
  <PackageLicenseFile>LICENSE.txt</PackageLicenseFile>
</PropertyGroup>

<ItemGroup>
  <None Include="LICENSE.txt" Pack="true" PackagePath="$(PackageLicenseFile)"/>
</ItemGroup>

But also there now is PackageLicenseExpression which can be used as an alternative to license files / URLs as you have mentioned in your comment.

See NuGet's wiki entry Packaging License within the nupkg for more details.