c# - Differences between nuget-packing a csproj vs. nuspec

Question

Recently, I started to pack nuget packages out of my several projects. First I started with the Package Explorer application. It is a nice tool, but it's less useful if you do continuous integration. Then I looked into specifying the nuspec template file, and passing changing data, e.g. version number, as command line arguments. Later, I wondered how to define the nuget package dependencies. As it turns out, the nuget.exe already does this based on the package.config if you specify a csproj. Moreover, it extracts relevant data like Author, Version, Copyright right from the assembly info. What I'm missing right now is the ability to specify a licenseUrl in the command line. But I wanted the question to be more generic. And so I'm asking:

What is the prefered way to pack nuget packages?

Answer 1

Here's a little-known fact: you can combine both! Target a csproj file, and make sure there's a nuspec file in the same directory with the same name as the csproj file. NuGet will merge the two during package creation.

So in short: target <ProjectName>.csproj, optionally add a corresponding tokenized <ProjectName>.nuspec file to be used as metadata by NuGet.exe.

It saves you from managing output location, dependencies, version, and other stuff that can be derived from the project.