dotnet list package / NuGet.CommandLine.XPlat build

[paulomorgado]

dotnet list package / NuGet.CommandLine.XPlat, apparently, builds the project using .NET SDK.

For projects that have dependencies on tools installed with Visual Studio, this fails.

Is there a property set in the build or a way to get a binlog from that?

[zivkan]

dotnet list package doesn't build the project, but it does use MSBuild APIs to read project properties, which means that MSBuild needs to be able to load ("evaluate") the project. Since dotnet list package is part of the .NET SDK, msbuild uses the targets/props from the .NET SDK, and therefore only officially supports projects that the .NET SDK supports.

Unofficially, I think I once saw someone set some MSBuild environment variables that overrides what directory MSBuild uses to load props/targets from. This won't always work, because if a target runs, and the target runs a task that only works on .NET Framework, then it can't work on the .NETCoreApp msbuild. That probably won't be a problem for dotnet list package though, so as long as MSBuild evaluation works dotnet list package will probably work. It just needs the project to have been restored via msbuild first. Having a quick look at msbuild's reserved and well-known properties, my guess is that setting MSBuildExtensionsPath to VS's MSBuild directory might be it. Zero guarantees that it'll work though.

[paulomorgado]

Changing MSBuildExtensionsPath might cause other issues.

dotnet list package could inject a property, like Visual Studio injects DesignTimeBuild.

But it's probably not worth the effort.