如何将某些视图和文件夹排除在已部署的ASP.NET MVC NuGet包中？

Question

I have a project written with C# on the top of ASP.NET MVC 5 framework using Visual Studio 2017. The project is running on .NET 4.7.2 framework.

I am trying to use nuget.exe to create a package for my project so I can install it into other projects.

I have a folder called resources which contains .js and .css files that I don't want to include into my package. I want to be able to exclude the entire resources folder. I also don't want to include all of my views, only views in the Views/Home folder should be included.

How can I exclude these files from being included in my packaged project?

I tried to follow the documentation by add exclusion on all the view then add the one I want. Follow is my current .nuspec file as you can see,

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
  <metadata>
    <id>....</id>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <title>...</title>
    <authors>...</authors>
    <owners>...</owners>
    <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
    <description>...</description>
    <releaseNotes></releaseNotes>
    <copyright>2019</copyright>
    <tags></tags>
  </metadata>  

   <files>

       <file src="**\*.*" exclude="**\*.designer.cs;**\*.csproj;**\*.pdb;**\*.user;**\*.vspscc;**\*.nuspec;libman.json;package.json;packages.config;Web.config;ApplicationInsights.config;public\**\*.*;Resource\**\*.*;bin\**\*.*;node_modules\**\*.*;obj\**\*.*;**\*.log;Views\**\*.*"/>
       <file src="Views\Home\**\*.cshtml" />

   </files>
</package>

UPDATED

I also tried adding the same rules into the contentFiles like so

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
  <metadata>
    <id>....</id>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <title>...</title>
    <authors>...</authors>
    <owners>...</owners>
    <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
    <description>...</description>
    <releaseNotes></releaseNotes>
    <copyright>2019</copyright>
    <tags></tags>
    <contentFiles>
       <files include="**\*.*" exclude="**\*.designer.cs;**\*.csproj;**\*.pdb;**\*.user;**\*.vspscc;**\*.nuspec;libman.json;package.json;packages.config;Web.config;ApplicationInsights.config;public\**\*.*;Resource\**\*.*;bin\**\*.*;node_modules\**\*.*;obj\**\*.*;**\*.log;Views\**\*.*"/>
       <file include="Views\Home\**\*.cshtml" />
    </contentFiles>
  </metadata>  

   <files>

       <file src="**\*.*" exclude="**\*.designer.cs;**\*.csproj;**\*.pdb;**\*.user;**\*.vspscc;**\*.nuspec;libman.json;package.json;packages.config;Web.config;ApplicationInsights.config;public\**\*.*;Resource\**\*.*;bin\**\*.*;node_modules\**\*.*;obj\**\*.*;**\*.log;Views\**\*.*"/>
       <file src="Views\Home\**\*.cshtml" />

   </files>
</package>

However, ALL of the views are still being included when I install the package in a different project.

I pack my package using the following command where T:/ is my network share

nuget pack -Prop Configuration=Release -OutputDirectory T:/

Answer 1

How can I exclude some views and folders from being included into the deployed ASP.NET MVC NuGet package?

The file element attribute exclude is correct attribute to exclude the files from the src location. But you missing another attribute target :

The relative path to the folder within the package where the source files are placed, which must begin with lib, content, build, or tools.

Check the document File element attributes for some more details.

Otherwise, nuget package does not know where to put the files to the project when you install the package.

So, the .nuspec file should be like:

   <files>

       <file src="**\*.*" exclude="**\*.designer.cs;**\*.csproj;**\*.pdb;**\*.user;**\*.vspscc;**\*.nuspec;libman.json;package.json;packages.config;Web.config;ApplicationInsights.config;public\**\*.*;Resource\**\*.*;bin\**\*.*;node_modules\**\*.*;obj\**\*.*;**\*.log;Views\**\*.*" target="content\/>
       <file src="Views\Home\**\*.cshtml" target="content\Views\Home\" />

   </files>

But this package will add all the files into the the root folder of your installed project. Because you including all the file with wildcard **\\*.* , Nuget could not to intelligently assign all of these files to the folder they should be in.

To resolve this issue, we should target files in different folders to different folders, like:

<file src="App_Start\*.cs" target="content\App_Start\" />

So, the .nuspec should be looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
  <metadata>
    <id>TestWebApp</id>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <authors>Tester</authors>
    <owners>Tester</owners>
    <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
    <description>Package description</description>
    <releaseNotes>Summary of changes made in this release of the package.</releaseNotes>
    <copyright>Copyright 2019</copyright>
    <tags>Tag1 Tag2</tags>
  </metadata>

  <files>
    <file src="App_Start\*.cs" target="content\App_Start\" />
    <file src="resources\*.*" target="content\resources\" />
     ....
    <file src="Views\Home\**\*.cshtml" target="content\Views\Home\" />
  </files>

</package>

Then pack this .nuspec file and install it into a Console App project to test:

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

So I finally replicated your problem and figured out what it's doing. Basically nuget pack is looking at both your .csproj file and your .nuspec file. It includes everything in the .csproj file marked as Build Action: Content in your project. Which is why your views are showing up funny and files aren't being excluded properly.

So to fix it you have a couple options.

1) Change the build action in your project for those files to not be content (just use None )

2) Build the .nuspec file out to include all the files you need specifically like Leo's answer showed and then build with nuget pack projectname.nuspec to only pack based off of the .nuspec file ONLY

See this answer from some other details

NuGet Pack: ignore default includes