Use environment variable in NuGet config?

Question

Is there a way to use an environment variable in NuGet.Config file?

Currently I am constrained to using relative path, as follows:

<configuration>
  <config>       
    <add key="repositoryPath" value="..\..\teampackages" />
  </config>
</configuration>

But would be really handy to have an environment variable with absolute path instead.

Solution 1

If you run nuget pack MyProject.csproj on a project with a corresponding MyProject.nuspec file in the same directory, NuGet will make the MSBuild properties available as tokens in the format $Property$, where Property is the name of the MSBuild property. For example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
  <metadata>
    <id>$id$</id>
    <version>$version$</version>
    <title>$title$</title>
    <authors>$author$</authors>
    <owners>$author$</owners>
    <requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
    <description>$description$</description>
    <copyright>Copyright 2013</copyright>
  </metadata>
  <files>
    <file src="$OutputPath$MyProject.pdb" target="lib\net40"/>
  </files>
</package>

In this example $id$, $version$, $title$, $author$ and $description$ are special values provided by NuGet itself based on the project file and AssemblyVersion attribute (normally found in AssemblyInfo.cs). However, $OutputPath$ is an MSBuild property defined in the common targets. You could also use $MSBuildProjectDirectory$ or any other standard property.

More info here ("Replacement Tokens" section):

NuSpec Reference

Solution 2

The following documentation indicates environment variables can be used in key values.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/nuget-config-file#using-environment-variables

Solution 3

NuGet V3 supports a Global Packages Folder, see http://blog.nuget.org/20151008/NuGet-3-What-and-Why.html.

NuGet V3.2 supports a global NUGET_PACKAGES environment variable to specify the location of the shared global packages folder. See: https://docs.nuget.org/release-notes/nuget-3.2

Maybe one of these can help you solve your issues.

I had the same question as you did and these features look promising in solving the actual issues I had. NuGet 3.2 is only available for VS2015, and we have some other issues with 2015, so I haven't tried it yet.

Solution 4

This works using standard %foo% environment variable references as of nuget 3.4 and higher: https://github.com/NuGet/Home/issues/1852

Solution 5

Here is the syntax :

<configuration>
  <config>       
    <add key="repositoryPath" value="%ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE%/teampackages" />
  </config>
</configuration>

Important Notes

1. The variable name should be surrounded with %%; Example %env_variable_name%
2. Do NOT use $env_variable_name syntax. (for MAC and Linux compatibility reasons)
3. The directory separator is / and NOT \ (for MAC compatibility reasons)
4. This requires (NuGet 3.4+)
5. For more info here is the doc

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Comments

[Andriy Drozdyuk]

Oh, so that's what the nuspec file is for. Thanks! What about environment variable, like PATH for example?

[Jesse Sweetland]

They might work via MSBuild properties. See: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171459(v=vs.80).aspx

[kiki]

I am not sure I understand how it answers the question. When I use a nuget.config with <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration> <config> <add key="repositoryPath" value="$MSBuildProjectDirectory$" /> </config> </configuration> it creates a folder called $MSBuildProjectDirectory$ next to the .sln file instead of using the project directory. Where do I go wrong?

[Jesse Sweetland]

I've jused MSBuild properties successfully in .nuspec files, but not in nuget.config. It may be that they are not supported in nuget.config.