Paket update repeatedly re-installs content files

[isaacabraham]

I'm using FSharp.Data.SqlClient, which has a couple of content files in the package. I delete them from the projects that use the package because I don't want them. Whenever I do a paket update or install (not --force or --hard), the files re-appear, even if that specific dependency hasn't been updated.

BTW this isn't a new issue - it's just that it's finally annoyed me so much that I decided to raise it as an issue ;-)

[agross]

Does your dependencies file contain content none?

[isaacabraham]

No, doesn't - I'll add that, good spot - sorry.

However, I do think that this option is possibly a bit too coarse-grained i.e. it applies across the whole dependency set. In any case, install shouldn't be re-applying installation of a package that hasn't changed.

This is the default behaviour of the native NuGet client and I think in this case we should look to reflect that: -

• The first time you install a package, it installs content files.
• Repeated installs of the package should not do this.

[tpluscode]

@agross oh I totally missed content none.
@isaacabraham See issue #202, which proposes a more fine-grained control over content files.

That said I think that content none should be enough in most cases. Unfortunately paket will never be NuGet in terms of automatization. It's a good thing IMO, albeit sometimes it is necessary to manually finish an installation - as in packages which add some .targets files.

Regarding content none (and other optional config switches) I think it would nice if it was possible to turn them on mid-dependencies file so that it only applied to selected packages:

source https://nuget.org/api/v2
nuget UnionArgParser // will install UnionArgParser content files

content none
nuget jQuery // but won't install jQuery content files

[dnauck]

Same problem here. I need content in one project and the assembly only in another project.

If i turn of content it will delete also the content from project 1 every time ;)

[forki]

I'm currently looking into this and propose a third state: content: once - this would not overwrite files.
I even consider to make this the default since it's the way nuget works.

what do you think?

/cc @SimonCropp

[dnauck]

Nice idea. +1

[forki]

mhm. it doesn't seem to solve the fody case completely.

As far as I understand it we only want to copy fodyweavers.xml once. the rest should be latest and greatest, right?