Produce standalone TemplateLocator package in pass 2

[emaf]

Summary

Schedule Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator as a top-level pass-2 project in product builds so the standalone TemplateLocator NuGet package is produced alongside the VS redist layout package.

Motivation

Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator.csproj is packable only during DotNetBuildPass=2, but it was only being built as a dependency of the VS redist layout project. That produced VS.Redist.Common.Net.Core.SDK.VSTemplateLocator, but did not produce the standalone TemplateLocator package.

Validation

Validated on Windows x64 with a pass-2 product-style pack:

build.cmd -pack /p:DotNetBuild=true /p:DotNetBuildPass=2 /p:TargetOS=windows /p:TargetArchitecture=x64

Confirmed both packages are produced:

• artifacts\packages\Debug\NonShipping\Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator.11.0.100-dev.nupkg
• artifacts\packages\Debug\NonShipping\VS.Redist.Common.Net.Core.SDK.VSTemplateLocator.11.0.100-dev.nupkg

Also ran the local publish/manifest phase before the latest cleanup and confirmed the generated asset manifest contains TemplateLocator as a <Package> asset, not only the VS redist package.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Note

Copilot was unable to run its full agentic suite in this review.

This PR updates build/packaging metadata so Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator is built in the second source-build pass (on win-x64) and explicitly sets its NuGet package identity.

Changes:

• Set an explicit PackageId for Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator.
• Add Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator.csproj to the pass-2 ProjectToBuild list for win-x64 product builds.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
src/Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator/Microsoft.DotNet.TemplateLocator.csproj	Adds an explicit PackageId for packing/publishing.
eng/Build.props	Builds TemplateLocator in DotNetBuildPass=2 alongside other dependent projects on win-x64.

[emaf]

cc @marcpopMSFT @mmitche

[ViktorHofer]

I assume you can't use the existing VS.Redist.Common.Net.Core.SDK.VSTemplateLocator package that we already provide to VS?

[emaf]

I assume you can't use the existing VS.Redist.Common.Net.Core.SDK.VSTemplateLocator package that we already provide to VS?

Yes, we technically could consume VS.Redist.Common.Net.Core.SDK.VSTemplateLocator, but it would be the wrong shape for C# Dev Kit. That package is a VS insertion/redist payload, not a normal library NuGet package.

C# Dev Kit needs to reference TemplateLocator through standard NuGet restore/publish flows. Using the VS redist package would mean adding custom logic to extract/copy the right files from its layout, and would couple us to VS packaging details instead of the TemplateLocator package contract.

[mmitche]

C# Dev Kit needs to reference TemplateLocator through standard NuGet restore/publish flows. Using the VS redist package would mean adding custom logic to extract/copy the right files from its layout, and would couple us to VS packaging details instead of the TemplateLocator package contract.

@emaf Does this mean this package is moving to a shipping nuget.org package?

[emaf]

C# Dev Kit needs to reference TemplateLocator through standard NuGet restore/publish flows. Using the VS redist package would mean adding custom logic to extract/copy the right files from its layout, and would couple us to VS packaging details instead of the TemplateLocator package contract.

@emaf Does this mean this package is moving to a shipping nuget.org package?

No, we just need this to be available in any (internal) feeds.

Just for context, C# Dev Kit already consumes and old version of this package that was produced by builds from the templating repo. The goal is to bring that back.