Note (12/22/2011): in NuGet 1.6 or later, this feature is built in, so you no longer need to use the NuGetPowerTools. Just right click on the Solution and choose ‘Enable NuGet Package Restore’.

A few months ago, I described a workflow that lets you use NuGet without committing the packages to source control. This has been a very popular workflow, and generally works quite well.

The down side is that it’s a bit painful to set up: you have to get NuGet.exe and add it to your tree, then you have to add a pre-build event for every project that uses NuGet.

The good news is that the ever-resourceful David Fowler has come up with a much easier way to set that up, using his NuGetPowerTools package. Here is the way to do it:

Let’s assume that you have a solution that is either already using NuGet, or planning to use it, and that you want to set up the no-commit workflow.

Now, you just need to go to the Package Manager Console and run a couple commands:

PM> Install-Package NuGetPowerTools
Successfully installed 'NuGetPowerTools 0.28'.

**********************************************************************************
INSTRUCTIONS
**********************************************************************************
- To enable building a package from a project use the Enable-PackageBuild command
- To enable restoring packages on build use the Enable-PackageRestore command.
- When using one of the above commands, a .nuget folder will been added to your
solution root. Make sure you check it in!
- For for information, see https://github.com/davidfowl/NuGetPowerTools
**********************************************************************************


PM> Enable-PackageRestore
Attempting to resolve dependency 'NuGet.CommandLine (≥ 1.4)'.
Successfully installed 'NuGet.CommandLine 1.4.20615.182'.
Successfully installed 'NuGet.Build 0.16'.

Copying nuget.exe and msbuild scripts to D:\Code\StarterApps\Mvc3Application\.nuget
Successfully uninstalled 'NuGet.Build 0.16'.
Successfully uninstalled 'NuGet.CommandLine 1.4.20615.182'.

Don't forget to commit the .nuget folder
Updated 'Mvc3Application' to use 'NuGet.targets'
Enabled package restore for Mvc3Application

And you’re done! So basically, the first command installs a NuGet package which brings in some helpful commands, and the second one runs one of those commands.

After doing this, you’ll notice a new .nuget folder under your solution, containing nuget.exe plus a couple msbuild target files. Make sure you commit that folder to source control! You’ll also find a few changes in your csproj files to trigger the restore functionality when you build.

I have now become a strong supporter of the don’t commit packages workflow, and if you’re going to use it, this is the way to do it!