Warn when Pack command excludes a file that starts with .

[gep13]

I recently ran into an issue where executing a nuget pack wasn't working, resulting in the following error:

After doing some digging, it turned out that this was due to the fact that I was using .build within the paths of the files that I was trying to include. When I changed this to use BuildArtifacts instead everything started working again.

I reached out to @ferventcoder who mentioned that he had seen something like this before, and had in fact mentioned it here:

https://twitter.com/ferventcoder/status/505048107520765952

Back when there was no formal mechanism to report issues for NuGet.

The particular issue that Rob was referring to is due to the code that is located here:

https://github.com/NuGet/NuGet.Client/blob/a83e1070d7bd4d52d01ec960a5431d32874f9a8f/src/NuGet.Core/NuGet.Commands/PackCommandRunner.cs#L41-L46

More and more build systems/tools are using conventions where a . is included in either the file or a directory, so I personally think that this needs to be addressed.

Original bug report here: https://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/4285

[gep13]

The original problem and solution to this is captured here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38911494/why-does-nugetpack-respond-with-cannot-create-a-package-that-has-no-dependencie

[rrelyea]

@rohit21agrawal - when we get to 3.6b2 issues, can you do an analysis of the info here and discuss the best strategy.

[mgasparel]

Came across this thread diagnosing an issue I was having. I was trying to include file with a relative path starting with "./" or "../" and they were being ignored as well.

[gep13]

@mgasparel I wasn't sure if they were related or not. I had thought about this issue when we were talking on Gitter 😄

[forhot2000]

I have the same problem in MacOS, and I don't have specified OutputDirectory

my directory structure is:

• EACPSO.dll
  • EACPSO.dll.nuspec
  • lib
    • 2.0
      • EACPSO.dll

build with command nuget pack EACPSO.dll.nuspec -verbosity detailed under directory EACPSO.dll

~/work/EACPSO.dll $ nuget pack EACPSO.dll.nuspec -verbosity detailed
Attempting to build package from 'EACPSO.dll.nuspec'.
System.InvalidOperationException: Cannot create a package that has no dependencies nor content.
  at NuGet.PackageBuilder.Save (System.IO.Stream stream) <0x2cf51c0 + 0x002ff> in <filename unknown>:0
  at NuGet.Commands.PackCommand.BuildPackage (NuGet.PackageBuilder builder, System.String outputPath) <0x2cf4328 + 0x0014b> in <filename unknown>:0

NuGet Version: 2.8.5.0

---

sorry, this has been solved after version 3.5.0.1996, it is solved after updated the nuget cli.

[chwarr]

I just ran into this issue with version 3.4.4.1321 when one of my intermediate directories (specified via a property) was .build:

<file src="$SomeRoot$\path\to\foo.h" target="build\native\inc\" />

And packing via nuget pack foo.nuspec -Properties SomeRoot=..\.build

[rohit21agrawal]

try passing -NoDefaultExcludes as a switch.

[chwarr]

Yup, -NoDefaultExcludes has made it work in my situation (nuget pack foo.nuspec -Properties SomeRoot=..\.build).

I can understand by default excluding a file/directory that matches a glob if it starts with a dot. I find it a bit of a stretch to exclude an explicitly listed file/directory that happens to contain a dot prefix anywhere. Though, I can see how the architecture of the application could easily have this behavior, depending on where in the pipeline the excludes are processed.

[ferventcoder]

I can understand by default excluding a file/directory that matches a glob if it starts with a dot. I find it a bit of a stretch to exclude an explicitly listed file/directory that happens to contain a dot prefix anywhere.

I call this a bug - and I called it a bug 3 years ago at http://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/4285 and here https://twitter.com/ferventcoder/status/505048107520765952.

The key point of why it is a bug is that it excludes those explicitly included items by default and without warning.

[Kyle-Muir]

I'm going to add my comments here since I don't think this warrants a dedicated issue of it's own.

As @ferventcoder indicated this issue is frustrating because nuget.exe (version: 4.5.1.4879) doesn't provide any feedback that these files are being excluded even when passing -verbosity detailed.

It would have been much simpler to diagnose and fix if there was any indication at all that my explicitly included files were being dropped out.