Nuget.targets: error could not find a part of the path

Question

I trying the build a website via TeamCity. It is a three stage process. The first two restore NuGet packages and the third builds the website.

Here is also the build steps for step 3.

The first one passes with this only warning

Step 1/3: Restore the NuGet Packages for BalanceToBuy (NuGet Installer) (3s)
[10:22:43][Step 1/3] scan: Searching for nuget.config files
[10:22:43][scan] RepositoryPath was not extracted from NuGet.config file at C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.Config. Packages will be downloaded into default path: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\packages.
[10:22:43][scan] Found packages folder: C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\packages
[10:22:43][scan] No repositories.config found at C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\packages\repositories.config
[10:22:43][scan] Failed to resolve project reference from solution file: Project("{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}") = "http://localhost:66", "http://localhost:66", "{72D2746B-946D-4670-AB52-C087971DB810}"

The second one passes and the tird error our with these messages (22 of them)

[10:22:51][Buy.Business\Buy.Business.csproj] RestorePackages
[10:22:51][RestorePackages] Exec
[10:22:51][Exec] "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.exe" install "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\Buy.Business\packages.config" -source ""  -NonInteractive -RequireConsent -solutionDir "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ "
[10:22:52][Exec] Restoring NuGet packages...
[10:22:52][Exec] To prevent NuGet from downloading packages during build, open the Visual Studio Options dialog, click on the Package Manager node and uncheck 'Allow NuGet to download missing packages'.
[10:22:52][Exec] EXEC 'Dapper' already has a dependency defined for 'System.Data.SqlClient'.
[10:22:52][Exec] Installing 'log4net 2.0.8'.
[10:22:52][Exec] Installing 'Dapper 1.60.6'.
[10:22:52][Exec] Successfully installed 'log4net 2.0.8'.
[10:22:52][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): 'Dapper' already has a dependency defined for 'System.Data.SqlClient'.
[10:22:52][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): The 'Newtonsoft.Json 12.0.2' package requires NuGet client version '2.12' or above, but the current NuGet version is '2.8.60717.93'.
[10:22:52][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): error MSB3073: The command ""C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.exe" install "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\BalanceToBuy.Business\packages.config" -source ""  -NonInteractive -RequireConsent -solutionDir "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ "" exited with code 1.

I fixed that problem by manually going to the CLI and updated the NuGet.exe it goes from version to to verions 5. I tried running it again and now I get a strange error.

[11:46:44][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): Could not find a part of the path 'C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ \packages\EnterpriseLibrary.Common.6.0.1304.0'.
[11:46:44][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): Could not find a part of the path 'C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ \packages\FastMember.Signed.1.3.0'.
[11:46:44][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): Could not find a part of the path 'C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ \packages\EntityFramework.6.2.0'.
[11:46:44][Exec] C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.targets(100, 9): error MSB3073: The command ""C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\.nuget\NuGet.exe" install "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\BalanceToBuy.Utility\packages.config" -source ""  -NonInteractive -RequireConsent -solutionDir "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ "" exited with code 1.

I noticed that there is a space in the -solutionDir "C:\TeamCity\buildAgent\work\a606a53a0957ca4b\ "
How is that getting there?

Solution

This issue should have been solved in March. I'm surprised you'd get it now, as it implies that you created your solution (With VS2010, 2012 or 2013) between the 20th of December 2018 and the 5th of March 2019, but only just updated to a newer nuget.exe now. Anyway, if you want to keep using this old, outdated way of doing NuGet restores, you need to manually edit your nuget.targets file as I wrote in the GitHub issue.

However, I still recommend migrating to automatic package restore. It means you'll need an extra step in your CI pipeline to do the restore before building, but Visual Studio 2015 onwards no longer has functionality to add NuGet restore in the way that your solution is doing.