MSBuild nuget RestoreOutputPath how to make it work?

Question

New msbuild csproj format have got integrated nuget commands. It's possible to change default path where project assets will be restored by using <RestoreOutputPath>obj\profile7</RestoreOutputPath> command in project file.

But if I add <RestoreOutputPath>obj\profile7</RestoreOutputPath> to csproj file consequent commands

dotnet restore myproj.sln
dotnet build myproj.sln

produce build errors

obj\project.assets.json' not found. Run a NuGet package restore to generate this file.

How to tell MSBuild to get nuget assets from this obj\Profile7 path during the build command?

Answer 1

The restore output path needs to be the same as MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath so that the nuget generated props and targets files will be imported by the common props and targets. as well as BaseIntermediateOutputPath will be the default for composing the path to ProjectAssetsFile.

At least for the NuGet imports, it is important that MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath or BaseIntermediateOutputPath is set before the SDK props file is imported.

The simplest way to solve all of these issues is to set BaseIntermediateOutputPath very early in the project so that all components will take its value as a default base path - this is essentially redirecting obj to somewhere else.

This conflicts with the <Project SDK="..."> syntax since there is no way to set properties before the SDK's props file. To work around this, the project can be changed like this:

<Project>
  <!-- This needs to be set before Sdk.props -->
  <PropertyGroup>
    <BaseIntermediateOutputPath>obj\SomeSubDir\</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Import Project="Sdk.props" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <!-- other content -->

  <Import Project="Sdk.targets" Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" />
</Project>

An alternative would be to create a Directory.Build.props file that will be automatically imported early enough, but this would apply the value to all projects in the directory and take away the ability to specify the value per project.