Difference between pack in dotnet and msbuild

Question

I use the new SDK style project of VS2017

In dotnet I can Pack using the command:

      dotnet pack project.csproj     --no-dependencies  --no-restore --output c:\packages -p:TargetId=abc -p:configuration=release 

In msbuild, I can pack using the command:

     msbuild project.csproj /t:pack -p:TargetId=abc -p:configuration=release 

How to set the options of dotnet --no-dependencies --no-restore --output using msbuild

Answer 1

• --no-restore doesn't need to be translated. If you do want to restore, pass -restore (short form -r ) to msbuild.
• --no-build translates to -p:NoBuild=true
• --no-dependencies translates to -p:RestoreRecursive=false (note that this doesn't really need to be used together with --no-restore )
• --output translates to -p:PackageOutputPath=C:\\some\\path

Do note that other commands such as build translate --no-dependencies to something different: -p:BuildProjectReferences=false which does not build project-to-project references, which may be what you want instead.

The full mapping from command line arguments to MSBuild parameters is spread over a few source files in the dotnet/cli GitHub Repo:

• PackCommandParser.cs contains the main pack command arguments.
• Some of the CommonOptions.cs . are used.
• Since it is a command that supports implicit restore, it uses restore options from RestoreCommandParser.cs

More parameters that are supported by the NuGet targets - which you could set from both the command line or the project file - are documented at NuGet pack and restore as MSBuild targets .