Nuget Package Restore, upon editing Package.Config, in Text Editor?

Question

When merging two projects, we're in need of Install-Package several 100 times. Doesn't Nuget support package restore, once Package.config is edited. The way it works like charm for Node JS package?

Once package.config is edited, why can't we fire Update-Package to restore all packages?

Is it supported in the successor Dotnet CLI?

Answer 1

While packages.config tells NuGet which packages to download and extract (for which target framework), the process of installing package references may also modify the .csproj file. So if you update only one of these after a merge, you could find yourself trouble.

The successor of this mechanism is PackageReference ( NuGet blog post ), which replaces packages.config and only requires listing the referenced packages and versions (and even some additional MSBuild logic could be used by projects to manage shared versions / packages etc.). However, there is no migration tool available, so you'd need to uninstall all packages and add the package references you need. Some NuGet features also changes - for example the support fo content files (=> files copied into the project directory) was removed which may still be used by some projects (eg web projects assuming that jQuery or other JS libraries would be acquired in this way).