NuLink 0.1.0-beta1

NuLink allows consuming NuGet packages from source code on local machine. This creates seamless environment where packages can be developed and tested as if their code was part of the main project. Learn more on GitHub

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Linux, macOS, or Windows
• .NET Core SDK 2.1+ (not tested on 3.0)

Currently NuLink supports SDK-style projects that consume packages through PackageReference. Support of .NET Framework-style projects that use packages.config is expected in upcoming versions.

Installing

$ dotnet tool install -g NuLink --version 0.1.0-beta1

Linking a package to local sources

Prior to linking, make sure these conditions are met:

• package must be first restored from a NuGet feed (this limitation will be removed in upcoming versions)
• package source project must be located on the local machine
• either dotnet restore or dotnet build must be run at least once on the package project

In terminal, go to directory of project/solution that consumes the package, and run:

$ nulink link -p My.Package -l /path/to/my/package/source/My.Package.csproj

In this example, all consumers of My.Package will start using binaries from /path/to/my/package/source/bin/Debug.

See Usage instructions for more info.

How it works

NuLink creates symbolic links to resolve binaries of selected packages directly from local file system:

Original                      Redirect
--------------------          ----------------------
~ or %UserProfile%            working directory
|                             |
+- .nuget/                    +- My.Package/
   |                             | 
   +- packages/                  +- Source/
      |                             |
      +- My.Package/                +- My.Package.csproj     
         |                          |  
         +- 1.0.5/                  +- bin/
            |                          |
            +- lib >---> SYMLINK >---> +- Debug/
               |                          |
               +-X- netstandard2.0/       +-V- netstandard2.0/

In this example, every time My.Package.csproj is compiled, the latest binaries from its bin/Debug are automatically used by all consumers. Since the binaries are mapped (through .pdb) to local sources, code navigation and debugging on consumer side work seamlessly with latest changes in package code.