如何测试NuGet软件包是否与较低版本的依赖项一起工作？

Question

Say I am using a NuGet package, in my project, that's dependent on version 1.2.3 of xyz However, I want to test to see if the NuGet package works with version 1.1.1 of xyz

I have tried doing assembly binding in App.config of my project this way, with the 1.1.1 version placed in the same directory where the 1.2.3 was.

<runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
       <dependentAssembly>
          <assemblyIdentity name="x.y.z" publicKeyToken="xxxx" culture="neutral" />
          <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.2.3 newVersion="1.1.1" />
       </dependentAssembly>
      </assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

However, I still get this error:

Could not load file or assembly 'x.y.z, Version=1.2.3, Culture=neutral, 
PublicKeyToken=xxxx' or one of its dependencies. 
The system cannot find the file specified.

Any ideas how I can test to see if the NuGet package works with a lower version of a dll?

Thanks

Answer 1

NuGet is a dependency management tool. By default, it will fetch the latest version of any library when you install it into your project. In your example, your project has version 1.2.3 of xyz installed which means it won't find version 1.1.1 like you tried to point it too.

To test with an older version, step one needs to be uninstall the current version of the package from your project. You need go to the Package Manager Console and execute the command Uninstall-Package xyz on your project.

Once you've done that, you will need to install the specific version of xyz that you want to test with. To do this, you need to run Install-Package xyz -Version 1.1.1 . This will go out to NuGet, get the 1.1.1 version of the package and install it and now you be able to run your tests. Keep in mind that the NuGet repository needs to have version 1.1.1 otherwise this will generate an error. Refer to the projects NuGet page for the versions that are hosted and available.