DLL in nuget references Version=0.0.0.0

Question

I have the following situation:

There is a library LibF which I build as a nuget package, it contains dlls for net48 and net core 3.1. I am the person packing it directly from the csproj using:

<PropertyGroup>
    <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>

It has the version="4.2.0-alpha.55" (I use GitVersion). Then I have another library LibD that uses LibF, so it references it as a nuget package in the.csproj like this:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="LibF " Version="4.2.0-alpha.55" />
</ItemGroup>

Then I also create a nuget package from LibD. I am the person packing it directly from the csproj using:

<PropertyGroup>
    <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>

When I try to consume the nuget of LibD somewhere else I get a compile issue in Visual Studio 2019:

Error   CS0012  The type 'MyType' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. 
You must add a reference to assembly 'LibF , Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,  
PublicKeyToken=468d6536c503beba'.

Obviously I don't have version 0.0.0.0. Now when I look at the nuget package (unzip) I see the following entry in the LibD.nuspec:

<dependency id="LibF" version="4.2.0-alpha.55" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />

This is correct. But when I use JetBrains DotPeek to analyze the dll it tells me in the references of the dll:

LibF, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=468d6536c503beba

So my question is: Why is there Version=0.0.0.0 as a reference for the dll? Why does it not want 4.2.0.0 because that is the version I have and the version I would expect to be referenced by the dll.

What could lead to such an issue?

Answer 1

What was missing was the following in the PropertyGroup of the csproj:

<UpdateAssemblyInfo>true</UpdateAssemblyInfo>

Afterwards version of assembly is correct.