NuGet

What is a `.nupkg`?

A NuGet package is just a ZIP archive with a different extension. To look inside:

# Copy or rename first (Expand-Archive only accepts .zip)
Copy-Item .\MyLib.1.2.3.nupkg .\MyLib.zip
Expand-Archive -Path .\MyLib.zip -DestinationPath .\pkg -Force

Inside you'll find:

/lib/<TFM>/...dll – the assemblies that get referenced
<id>.nuspec – XML describing ID, version, dependencies, git commit/branch, etc.

Inspect Cached Packages

Search your local NuGet cache for specific packages:

Get-ChildItem -Path $env:USERPROFILE -Recurse -Filter *.nupkg | 
Where-Object { $_.Name -match "ChronoStream\.(Serialization|Dtos).*" } | 
Select-Object FullName

Keep Project References Inside One Package

If you reference another project in the same solution but don't want a separate NuGet dependency, add PrivateAssets="all" to the <ProjectReference>:

<ItemGroup>
  <ProjectReference Include="..\ChronoStream.Serialization\ChronoStream.Serialization.csproj" 
                    PrivateAssets="all" />
</ItemGroup>

With <IncludeReferencedProjects>true</IncludeReferencedProjects> in your project file, the DLL gets embedded in the parent package without creating a dependency in the .nuspec.

Pack Locally

# Default version comes from the .csproj
dotnet pack ChronoStream.Client/ChronoStream.Client.csproj -c Release -o ./nupkgs

# Override version on command line
dotnet pack ChronoStream.Client/ChronoStream.Client.csproj -c Release -o ./nupkgs -p:Version=3.1.4

Push to GitLab NuGet Feed

Note: GitLab only lets you push to project-level feeds (group feeds are pull-only)

dotnet nuget push ".\nupkgs\ChronoStream.Client.7.0.3.nupkg" `
  --source "https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<project_id>/packages/nuget/index.json" `
  --api-key "<your_PAT_or_CI_TOKEN>" `
  --skip-duplicate

Replace <project_id> with the number shown in Project › Settings › General.

Include Source Code

To include source files in your package for debugging:

dotnet pack -c Release -o ./nupkgs --include-source

This creates both the regular package and a symbols package (.snupkg) containing source files.