If I release an update to my nuget package but I don't change the version number, how does Visual Studio handle that?

Question

Let's say I have a nuget package in my Nexus repository called MyPackage.1.0.0. I also have a solution in Visual Studio that has MyPackage.1.0.0 installed. If I make a change to my nuget package in Nexus but I don't change the version number, what happens in Visual Studio? Will Visual Studio know that the installed package is outdated? Will it automatically download the new version next time the solution is built?

Answer 1

No, Visual Studio will not detect this and will not use the updated package. Also, if you are using package reference nuget package management format, the package once installed gets extracted to the global packages folder. If you now try to install this package in a completely different project, nuget first looks in this global packages folder and if it finds it which it will, it will use it and not go to package sources to retrieve it again.

Answer 2

You can clear the local nuget caches by calling

nuget locals all -clear

from the command line.

After that, all packages will be downloaded again. This may be acceptable during development (ie if you need to tweak your package until it works), but clearly is not an option if others are using the same version already.