I am creating a NuGet package for a C# class library, and I would like to include generated Xml Documentation with the library. This is my nuspec file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<package>
<metadata>
<id>MyLibrary</id>
<version>1.0.0.0</version>
<authors>John Nelson</authors>
<language>en-US</language>
<description>A C# class library</description>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="..\..\build\MyLibrary.dll" target="lib\Net40" />
<file src="..\..\build\MyLibrary.xml" target="lib\Net40" />
</files>
</package>
When I build the package with this command:
nuget pack MyLibrary.nuspec
It generates an error. If I remove the line:
<file src="..\..\build\MyLibrary.xml" target="lib\Net40" />
NuGet.exe successfully creates the nupkg. I can even unzip the package, and verify that the contents are correct. What am I doing wrong? Should the xml file go into a different target directory?
nuget pack library.csproj
(I don't have a nuspec), but the fix works the same.
The problem was that I didn't check "Generate Xml Documentation" for the build configuration I was using. That nuspec is correct.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/cP6EG.png
In .NET Core/Standard you can do this by editing the project XML file, for example:
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
<GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<DocumentationFile>bin\$(Configuration)\$(TargetFramework)\$(AssemblyName).xml</DocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>
This will output the documentation as an XML file next to your output assembly.
EDIT: As a side note once you enable GenerateDocumentationFile
you will probably get lots of warnings on your public methods for not having added full documentation tags. If you want to disable these warnings simply add in the PropertyGroup
:
<NoWarn>$(NoWarn);1591</NoWarn>
<GenerateDocumentationFile>
results in a <DocumentationFile>
already, so I think only one of both is required, see: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/codedoc
<DocumentationFile>
yourself just allows you to output the file where ever you want. If you dont specify it I think it literally puts it in the path I have provided above.
Success story sharing
asm.Location
and this gets me inside ofbin\Debug\netcoreapp
etc.