Create a NuGet package for a C# library

In this article we discuss a simple way to create, configure and publish your first c# library through personal NuGet repository.

• Download NuGet.exe from https://docs.nuget.org/create/creating-and-publishing-a-package
• Add environment variable path that refer the installed nuget.exe file
• Build your project in Release mode
• Get the “bin” folder path where you can retrieve the project assembly
• Move under your project bin/release folder and copy the generated *.ddl (pay attention: copy only your project assembly file and not all the dependencies) and paste in a new different folder
• In this folder create these two folders:
  • lib – contains only the project dlls
  • content – contains all the solution content after the build process (Release mode) without the “bin” and “obj” folders
• Open cmd with admin priviledges:
  • move under the temp folder where you create the folder at the step above
  • enter in the lib folder (> cd lib)
  • run > nuget.exe spec MyAssembly.dll
  • this creates a Nuspec file
  • move the .nuspec file outside the lib folder
  • you must now have this configuration inside the folder:
    • content
    • lib
    • MyAssembly.nuspec
  • edit the NuSpec file as needed (see the section below)
  • then run > nuget.exe pack MyAssembly.nuspec
  • a new MyAssembly.nupkg was created.

Nuspec file configuration

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package>
<metadata>
<id>MyAssembly</id>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<authors>Tier-1</authors>
<owners>Tier-1</owners>
<licenseUrl>http://LICENSE_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</licenseUrl>
<projectUrl>http://PROJECT_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</projectUrl>
<iconUrl>http://ICON_URL_HERE_OR_DELETE_THIS_LINE</iconUrl>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description></description>
<releaseNotes>Summary of changes made in this release of the package.</releaseNotes>
<copyright>Copyright 2015</copyright>
<tags>Tag1 Tag2</tags>
<dependencies>
<dependency id="Newtonsoft.Json" version="7.0.1" />
<dependency id="NLog" version="4.2.1" />
<dependency id="NLog.Config" version="4.2.1" />
<dependency id="NLog.Schema" version="4.2.1" />
</dependencies>
</metadata>
</package>

In the .nuspec file you can configure all the dependencies that you dll requires. In this way the NuGet repository can download the dependencies when a client install your NuGet package.

Now you can provide this package and retrieve via Visual Studio as all the other libraries.