Converts a project to use Centralised Package Management

To convert a large project to centralised package management, you need to:

• Go through all of the csproj files and copy the references into the centralised Directory.Packages.props file
• Remove all the versions from the package reference entries in the csproj files.

This can be laborious for large projects, hence this tool.

You can install the tool by running:

dotnet tool install CentralisedPackageConverter --global

Then just run the tool:

central-pkg-converter /Users/markotway/SomeAwesomeProject

Run the command, passing a folder as the only parameter. The tool will scan for all .csproj files within that folder tree, gather up a list of all of the versioned references in the projects, and will then remove the versions from the csproj file, and write the entries to the Directory.Packages.props file.

• Root Directory : Root folder to scan for csproj files. Required.
• -r, --revert : Revert from Centralised Package Management to csproj-based versions.
• -d, --dry-run : Read-only mode (make no changes on disk).
• -f : Force changes (don't prompt/check for permission before continuing).
• -m : Merge changes with existing directory file.
• -t, --transitive-pinning : Force versions on transitive dependencies (CentralPackageTransitivePinningEnabled=true).
• -e, --encoding : Encoding of written files, IANA web name (e.g. utf-8, utf-16). Default is picked by .NET implementation.
• -l, --linewrap : Line wrap style: lf=Unix, crlf=Windows, cr=Mac. Default is system style.
• -v, --min-version : Pick minimum instead of maximum package version number.
• -p, --ignore-prerelease : Ignore prerelease versions.
• -c, --version-comparison : Which NuGet version parts to consider: Default, Version, VersionRelease, VersionReleaseMetadata (enum NuGet.Versioning.VersionComparison).
• -x, --exclude-dirs, (Default = ^\.|^bin$|^obj$) Exclude directories matching this regular expression (not search pattern!).

Central Package Management CPM does not support floating versions, such as wildcards or range operators.

Omitted digits will be implicitly added: "8" == "8.0" == "8.0.0".

The Directory.Packages.props file may be invalid or incomplete:

• if the versions found in projects are missing, invalid (e.g. floating) or ignored (e.g. prerelease).
• if conditions on ItemGroup depend on the project file.

In these cases, manual edits or version selection will be necessary.

Thanks to Thomas Ardal for the suggestion and pointers to get this pushed as a dotnet global command.