If a nuget specifies PrivateAssets=all why specify IncludeAssets?-CodePudding

The nuget installation pages for development-only packages (e.g. analysers, build tools), typically show this:

<PackageReference Include="Foo" Version="1.2.3">
  <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
  <IncludeAssets>runtime;build;native;contentfiles;analyzers;...</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>

For such packages, the PrivateAssets property is always set to all.

The IncludeAssets property is always specified too. Surely it's redundant?

CodePudding user response：

The compile asset is not listed in InlcudeAssets, so in fact it's not the same. The lack of compile assets means that if the package contains any dlls under lib/ or ref/, you won't be able to call those APIs, which is a good thing since the package won't be listed as a dependency on your own package.

If you remove that IncludeAssets line and call APIs, then anyone using your package (and calls an API which uses your "privateassets=all" package reference), then at runtime a FileNotFoundException will be thrown.

So, having an IncludeAssets line that removes compile is a good thing, although the same could be achieved by replacing it with <ExcludeAssets>compile</ExcludeAssets>, which would have been much clearer.

My gut feeling is that runtime should also be excluded, but I have no idea why the people working on NuGet at the time this was implemented made the different decision.