Add NuGet package version to ThisAssembly

[qmfrederik]

I'm working on a .NET tool which will add a reference to a NuGet package to a project file, very similar to what nbgv does.

For this, I'd like to use a property on ThisAssembly which would return the NuGet package version.

@AArnott what do you think?

[AArnott]

It feels a bit odd. An project might not even pack itself, so it wouldn't know the version of its containing package yet with this generated it would believe it does.

I guess I'd accept a PR with this change, but I think I'd want it opt-in via an msbuild property.

[AArnott]

Maybe it can be activated by the IsPackable=true property in the project file. That would make it 'right' about 99% of the time.

[grokys]

This sounds something that I could use.

For background: I have a desktop app and want to show the version in the About dialog as e.g. 3.0.0+7f41ecfa0f for a non-public build and just 3.0.0 for a public build

As far as I can see there's currently no way to detect from C# whether the build was a public release or not, is that correct?

[AArnott]

@grokys You can already tell if it's a public release since ThisAssembly.IsPublicRelease is a property you can access:

Nerdbank.GitVersioning/src/NerdBank.GitVersioning.Tests/AssemblyInfoTest.cs

Line 106 in d7a4eb4

internal const bool IsPublicRelease = false;

The authoritative list is here:

Nerdbank.GitVersioning/src/Nerdbank.GitVersioning.Tasks/AssemblyVersionInfo.cs

Lines 162 to 179 in d7a4eb4

	thisAssembly.Members.AddRange(CreateFields(new Dictionary<string, string>
	{
	{ "AssemblyVersion", this.AssemblyVersion },
	{ "AssemblyFileVersion", this.AssemblyFileVersion },
	{ "AssemblyInformationalVersion", this.AssemblyInformationalVersion },
	{ "AssemblyName", this.AssemblyName },
	{ "AssemblyTitle", this.AssemblyTitle },
	{ "AssemblyProduct", this.AssemblyProduct },
	{ "AssemblyCopyright", this.AssemblyCopyright },
	{ "AssemblyCompany", this.AssemblyCompany },
	{ "AssemblyConfiguration", this.AssemblyConfiguration },
	{ "GitCommitId", this.GitCommitId },
	}).ToArray());
	thisAssembly.Members.AddRange(CreateFields(new Dictionary<string, bool>
	{
	{ "IsPublicRelease", this.PublicRelease },
	{ "IsPrerelease", !string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.PrereleaseVersion) },
	}).ToArray());

[grokys]

Hmm, strange - I'm not seeing that:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:4.0.30319.42000
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyVersionAttribute("3.0.0.0")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyFileVersionAttribute("3.0.0.25")]
[assembly: System.Reflection.AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute("3.0.0+1a39aac1e1")]
#if NETSTANDARD || NETFRAMEWORK || NETCOREAPP
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCode("Nerdbank.GitVersioning.Tasks","3.0.25.34678")]
#endif
internal static partial class ThisAssembly {
    internal const string AssemblyVersion = "3.0.0.0";
    internal const string AssemblyFileVersion = "3.0.0.25";
    internal const string AssemblyInformationalVersion = "3.0.0+1a39aac1e1";
    internal const string AssemblyName = "ABC";
    internal const string AssemblyConfiguration = "Release";
    internal const string GitCommitId = "1a39aac1e1cebff7421259e5db45aff3c1061028";
    internal static readonly System.DateTime GitCommitDate = new System.DateTime(637255600010000000L, System.DateTimeKind.Utc);
    internal const string RootNamespace = "ABC";
}

[grokys]

Oh wait, ignore that. Looks like NuGet wasn't showing me the newer versions of the packages. I can see it now.

[perpetualKid]

For a desktop app trying to identify if there is an (self)update available via Nuget feed, including non-public prereleases. The app only has AssemblyInformationalVersion: 1.3.21-dev.6+631091b0, while the NuGetPackageVersion: 1.3.21-dev.6.g631091b0 is slightly different format in metadata vs release labels.

If there was a NuGetPackageVersion available in ThisAssembly, it would be easy to compare.
I've been trying to use the AdditionalThisAssemblyFields <AdditionalThisAssemblyFields Include="NuGetPackageVersion" String="???"/> but failing to understand how to inject NuGetPackageVersion from NBGV as variable at build time. Any ideas, or did I miss some other way to compare an assembly version against a package version? @AArnott

[AArnott]

If there was a NuGetPackageVersion available in ThisAssembly, it would be easy to compare.

Really? What compare method would you use? You'd need to know whether the version string is using semver1 or 2 rules then use a compare function appropriate for that semver syntax. It wouldn't be a simple Version class comparer. Would you redist a NuGet assembly and use its comparer function?

I've been trying to use the AdditionalThisAssemblyFields

That would have very specific build ordering requirements. But it should be possible. Like this:

<Target Name="AddNuGetPackageVersionToThisAssembly"
        DependsOnTargets="GetBuildVersion"
        BeforeTargets="GenerateAssemblyVersionInfo">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AdditionalThisAssemblyFields Include="NuGetPackageVersion" String="$(NuGetPackageVersion)" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

[perpetualKid]

If there was a NuGetPackageVersion available in ThisAssembly, it would be easy to compare.

Really? What compare method would you use? You'd need to know whether the version string is using semver1 or 2 rules then use a compare function appropriate for that semver syntax. It wouldn't be a simple Version class comparer. Would you redist a NuGet assembly and use its comparer function?

correct, using Nuget.Versioning to provide SemVer-compatible version comparison, to enable auto-update for the application itself, and (future plan) application content, aside using Nuget Core/Protocolto handle feed, download and unpacking.
All worked well from the ground for public releases, just got stuck when offering an additional update channel for "developer versions" which are basically non-public releases in nbgv semantic (and served of a separate feed). Certainly not a standard use case.

I've been trying to use the AdditionalThisAssemblyFields

That would have very specific build ordering requirements. But it should be possible. Like this:

<Target Name="AddNuGetPackageVersionToThisAssembly"
        DependsOnTargets="GetBuildVersion"
        BeforeTargets="GenerateAssemblyVersionInfo">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AdditionalThisAssemblyFields Include="NuGetPackageVersion" String="$(NuGetPackageVersion)" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

aweseome just did a quick test and seems to do that I needed, saves me from string-mangeling metadata into release labels for non-public releases. Thanks for quick response, and great tool!

[perpetualKid]

<Target Name="AddNuGetPackageVersionToThisAssembly"
        DependsOnTargets="GetBuildVersion"
        BeforeTargets="GenerateAssemblyVersionInfo">
  <ItemGroup>
    <AdditionalThisAssemblyFields Include="NuGetPackageVersion" String="$(NuGetPackageVersion)" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

somehow after 3.4.255 this does not seem to work anymore, in 3.5.103+ it the additional field is not created anymore, breaking our code (error CS0117: 'ThisAssembly' does not contain a definition for 'NuGetPackageVersion').

Edit: seems the "GenerateAssemblyVersionInfo" target name has changed into "GenerateAssemblyNBGVVersionInfo", once updating the above custom target things are back at normal.

[AArnott]

Thanks for sharing. The target names had to be changed IIRC to avoid conflicting with a target from another SDK.