uninstall-package w/ -RemoveDependencies will fail if multiple packages share a common dependency

[SupporterMan]

Details about Problem

According to the document for Uninstall NuGet packages, the "-RemoveDependencies" parameter could "Uninstalls the package and its unused dependencies. That is, if any dependency has another package that depends on it, it is skipped.".

But if there are two packages that both depend on a same dependencies, when I try use command "Uninstall-Package PackageName -RemoveDependencies", it will give me below error message and the process of uninstall package is failed.

Uninstall-Package : Unable to uninstall 'DependencisPackageName' because 'AnotherPackageName' depends on it.
At line:1 char:1

• Uninstall-Package PackageName -RemoveDependencies

•   + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Uninstall-Package], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NuGetCmdletUnhandledException,NuGet.PackageManagement.PowerShellCmdlets.UninstallPackageCommand
  

NuGet product used: Package Manager Console
NuGet version: 3.5.0
VS version: Visual Studio 2015 with Update 3

Detailed repro steps so we can see the same problem

1. Created new solution.
2. Installed WindowsAzure.Storage and Nancy.Serialization.JsonNet (both depend on Newtonsoft.Json).
3. Uninstall WindowsAzure.Storage from Package Manager Console in Visual Studio 2015 with command "Uninstall-Package WindowsAzure.Storage -RemoveDependencies"

[rrelyea]

@SupporterMan - it would help us prioritize, if you could help tell us if this had worked in earlier versions?

[troshko111]

@rrelyea
I found a [http://www.marcusoft.net/2011/02/nuget-uninstall-remove-dependencies.html](blog post) where some guy left a comment suggesting that did not work back 10 months ago.

My guess would be that hasn't been working for quite some time. Uninstalling packages is like super core feature of a package manager, I would probably suggest this is a P0 issue. Uninstalling anything is quite some pain right now

[SupporterMan]

@rrelyea I have tested in nuget 3.0 and nuget 3.4.4, the same result. It seems that it doesn't work from previous version of NuGet.

[rrelyea]

This appears to be a problem with packages.config projects. If you move to Project.json (uwp-style) today, or PackageReferences in VS2017 and later, it moves to a place where you only list those 2 dependencies (WindowsAzure.Storage or Nancy.Serialization.JsonNet). At that point, you can more easily remove usage of either one.

We're going to be focusing our energy on PackageReferences, and enabling everybody to move towards that model. As such, there are things that are less than ideal about Packages.Config projects and how they work in NuGet. Our solution here is to migrate people towards PackageReferences (or uwp-style project.json if they cannot require vs2017).

[jagrutichavan]

I have nuget version 3.5.0 but i want to downgrade it to 3.4.0 so how to do this.or what can be done in this case