Minimizing References with .NET Core csproj VS 2017 Tooling

[RehanSaeed]

I have .NET Core class libraries I publish to NuGet. After upgrading them to VS 2017 csproj format, they have the following signature.

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

Adding Microsoft.NET.Sdk seems to add references to a base set of libraries. However, as a library author myself, I probably want to only references a minimum set of references. Is that still true and if so, how can it be achieved?

Looking at the ASP.NET Core and Entity Framework Core projects, they seem to use Microsoft.NET.Sdk and do not individually select just the packages they need.

[davidfowl]

Adding Microsoft.NET.Sdk seems to add references to a base set of libraries. However, as a library author myself, I probably want to only references a minimum set of references. Is that still true and if so, how can it be achieved?

Are you talking about NETStandard.Library? It's recommended to always use that as the baseline. For .NET Standard 2.0 you won't be able to break it into pieces anyways so I wouldn't bother trying to go lower than that.

The new guidance is to reference NETStandard.Library always as a package author.

[RehanSaeed]

I don't see EF Core or MVC referencing NETStandard.Library. When I did a dotnet migrate id didn't add it either. Should I be explicitly adding NetStandardImplicitPackageVersion? doesn't Microsoft.NET.Sdk add a default of 1.6.1 for you?

The dotnet migrate produced an ugly csproj with extra fluff I didn't need, here is the original after migrate and after some cleanup using secret knowledge which I've only discovered by looking at GitHub issues and at .targets files (This could really use a blog post, perhaps I will write one):

• I seem to be able to remove all System.* and Microsoft.CSharp references produced by myself in project.json and by dotnet migrate. Not sure if this is correct.
• PrivateAssets element can be an attribute.
• Lots of secret MSBuild defaults mean you can remove a tonne of elements.
• Added CodeAnalysisRuleSet back in, the migrate command misses this out.

After dotnet migrate

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <Description>Provides boilerplate framework code for an ASP.NET MVC project. ASP.NET MVC Boilerplate is a professional template for building secure, fast, robust and adaptable web applications or sites. It provides the minimum amount of code required on top of the default MVC template provided by Microsoft. You can download the ASP.NET MVC Boilerplate project template on the Visual Studio Gallery or download the code on GitHub.</Description>
    <Copyright>Copyright © Muhammad Rehan Saeed. All rights Reserved</Copyright>
    <AssemblyTitle>ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Boilerplate Framework</AssemblyTitle>
    <VersionPrefix>2.2.2</VersionPrefix>
    <Authors>Muhammad Rehan Saeed (RehanSaeed.com)</Authors>
    <TargetFrameworks>netstandard1.6;net461</TargetFrameworks>
    <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
    <GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
    <AssemblyName>Boilerplate.AspNetCore</AssemblyName>
    <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>../../../Key.snk</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
    <SignAssembly>true</SignAssembly>
    <PublicSign Condition=" '$(OS)' != 'Windows_NT' ">true</PublicSign>
    <PackageId>Boilerplate.AspNetCore</PackageId>
    <PackageTags>ASP.NET;ASP.NET Core;MVC;MVC 6;Boilerplate;Muhammad Rehan Saeed;Framework</PackageTags>
    <PackageReleaseNotes>Updated to ASP.NET Core 1.1.2.</PackageReleaseNotes>
    <PackageIconUrl>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RehanSaeed/ASP.NET-MVC-Boilerplate/master/Images/Icon.png</PackageIconUrl>
    <PackageProjectUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework</PackageProjectUrl>
    <PackageLicenseUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework/blob/master/LICENSE</PackageLicenseUrl>
    <PackageRequireLicenseAcceptance>true</PackageRequireLicenseAcceptance>
    <RepositoryType>git</RepositoryType>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework.git</RepositoryUrl>
    <GenerateAssemblyConfigurationAttribute>false</GenerateAssemblyConfigurationAttribute>
    <GenerateAssemblyCompanyAttribute>false</GenerateAssemblyCompanyAttribute>
    <GenerateAssemblyProductAttribute>false</GenerateAssemblyProductAttribute>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\Boilerplate\Boilerplate.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Abstractions" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Binder" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="9.0.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="StyleCop.Analyzers" Version="1.0.0">
      <PrivateAssets>All</PrivateAssets>
    </PackageReference>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'netstandard1.6' ">
    <PackageReference Include="System.Xml.XDocument" Version="4.3.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net461' ">
    <Reference Include="System.ServiceModel" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xml.Linq" />
    <Reference Include="System" />
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

After Manual Clean-Up

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup Label="Build">
    <TargetFrameworks>netstandard1.6;net461</TargetFrameworks>
    <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
    <GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
    <CodeAnalysisRuleSet>../../../MinimumRecommendedRulesWithStyleCop.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
    <SignAssembly>true</SignAssembly>
    <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>../../../Key.snk</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>
    <PublicSign Condition=" '$(OS)' != 'Windows_NT' ">true</PublicSign>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Label="Package">
    <VersionPrefix>2.2.2</VersionPrefix>
    <Authors>Muhammad Rehan Saeed (RehanSaeed.com)</Authors>
    <Product>ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Boilerplate Framework</Product>
    <Description>Provides boilerplate framework code for an ASP.NET MVC project. ASP.NET MVC Boilerplate is a professional template for building secure, fast, robust and adaptable web applications or sites. It provides the minimum amount of code required on top of the default MVC template provided by Microsoft. You can download the ASP.NET MVC Boilerplate project template on the Visual Studio Gallery or download the code on GitHub.</Description>
    <Copyright>Copyright © Muhammad Rehan Saeed. All rights Reserved</Copyright>
    <PackageRequireLicenseAcceptance>true</PackageRequireLicenseAcceptance>
    <PackageLicenseUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework/blob/master/LICENSE</PackageLicenseUrl>
    <PackageProjectUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework</PackageProjectUrl>
    <PackageIconUrl>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RehanSaeed/ASP.NET-MVC-Boilerplate/master/Images/Icon.png</PackageIconUrl>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC-Boilerplate/Framework.git</RepositoryUrl>
    <RepositoryType>git</RepositoryType>
    <PackageTags>ASP.NET;ASP.NET Core;MVC;MVC 6;Boilerplate;Muhammad Rehan Saeed;Framework</PackageTags>
    <PackageReleaseNotes>Updated to ASP.NET Core 1.1.2.</PackageReleaseNotes>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup Label="Project References">
    <ProjectReference Include="..\Boilerplate\Boilerplate.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup Label="Package References">
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Abstractions" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core" Version="1.1.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Abstractions" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Binder" Version="1.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="9.0.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="StyleCop.Analyzers" PrivateAssets="All" Version="1.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net461' " Label=".NET 4.6.1 Package References">
    <Reference Include="System.ServiceModel" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

[davidfowl]

I don't see EF Core or MVC referencing NETStandard.Library. When I did a dotnet migrate id didn't add it either.

That's correct, by default it's implicitly added.

Should I be explicitly adding NetStandardImplicitPackageVersion? doesn't Microsoft.NET.Sdk add a default of 1.6.1 for you?

I believe that's the default.

The dotnet migrate produced an ugly csproj with extra fluff I didn't need, here is the original after migrate and after some cleanup using secret knowledge which I've only discovered by looking at GitHub issues and at .targets files (This could really use a blog post, perhaps I will write one):

Yes migrate trends towards accuracy but it isn't minimal by any means but that's unrelated to this post.

[livarcocc]

@RehanSaeed if there is anything else you would like addressed by this issue, please re-activate it. For the meanwhile, I am going to close it.