NuGet resolves the wrong version of package dependency

Question

So I have a package, NServiceBus.Host that depends on NServiceBus >= 4.5.0.

On nuget there is a 4.5.1 version of NServiceBus. When I install-package NServiceBus.Host I get:

PM> install-package nservicebus.host
Attempting to resolve dependency 'NServiceBus (≥ 4.5.0)'.
Attempting to resolve dependency 'NServiceBus.Interfaces (≥ 4.5.0)'.
Installing 'NServiceBus.Interfaces 4.5.0'.
You are downloading NServiceBus.Interfaces from NServiceBus Ltd, the license agreement to which is available at http://particular.net/LicenseAgreement. Check the package for additional dependencies, which may come with their own license agreement(s). Your use of the package and dependencies constitutes your acceptance of their license agreements. If you do not accept the license agreement(s), then delete the relevant components from your device.
Successfully installed 'NServiceBus.Interfaces 4.5.0'.
Installing 'NServiceBus 4.5.0'.

As you can see I get the 4.5.0 version of the dependency.

In the nuget doco it states:

If the dependency is not installed, NuGet goes through the following steps:

NuGet enumerates every version of Subkismet within the feed that’s within the version specification. NuGet then narrows that set to just the packages with the lowest Major/Minor version. Of the remaining packages, NuGet picks the one with the highest version number.

"NuGet picks the one with the highest version number." seems to be violated here since there is a never version.

Is this a bug in NuGet?

Answer 1

The NuGet documentation on dependency resolution you refer to hasn't been updated since Dec 2010. The real NuGet docs are available here: https://docs.nuget.org

Also, NuGet will - by default - resolve the lowest major.minor version within the range allowed, as defined in the package dependencies. So 4.5.0 is a correct default dependency resolution.

New since NuGet v2.8.1: you can use an alternate dependency resolution algorithm using the NuGet Package Manager Console:

Install-Package NServiceBus.Host -DependencyVersion HighestPatch

There are more options, check the docs here: https://docs.nuget.org/docs/reference/package-manager-console-powershell-reference#Install-Package

Answer 2

As Xavier mentioned this seems default behaviour. However, the documentation says you can change default behavior by editing nuget configuration:

Specifies the version of the dependency package to be selected from the list of valid dependency packages. The defult value is Lowest. You can override this default value by specifying a new default value in nuget.config file:

<configuration>
    <config>
        <add key="DependencyVersion" value="HighestPatch" />
    </config>
</configuration>

I edited my configuration file as described in the documentation:

%AppData%\Nuget\NuGet.Config

It then works in Powershell but NOT in a regular command prompt.

The docs also says:

What is strange is that the docs says that pre 2.7.2 the default was HighestPatch...

Note that for NuGet 2.7.2 or earlier, the default value is HighestPatch, and it cannot be changed.

The release notes of 2.8 mention the change in behavior and for the reason that install package now has a consistent dependency resolution result over time.

https://docs.nuget.org/docs/release-notes/nuget-2.8