Is it possible to change the location of packages

Question

I have the following convention for most of my projects:

/src
    /Solution.sln
    /SolutionFolder
        /Project1
        /Project2
        /etc..
/lib
    /Moq
        moq.dll
        license.txt
    /Yui-Compressor
        yui.compressor.dll
/tools
    /ILMerge
        ilmerge.exe

You'll notice that I do not keep external libraries inside the source folder. I'm also very interested in using NuGet but don't want these external libraries inside the source folder. Does NuGet have a setting to change the directory that all packages are loaded into?

Answer 1

The most consistent way is via using nuget config to correctly set the config:

nuget config -set repositoryPath=c:\packages -configfile c:\my.config

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/consume-packages/configuring-nuget-behavior#changing-config-settings

Answer 2

In order to change the path for projects using PackageReference instead of packages.config you need to use globalPackagesFolder

From https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/nuget-config-file

globalPackagesFolder (projects using PackageReference only)

The location of the default global packages folder. The default is %userprofile%.nuget\packages (Windows) or ~/.nuget/packages (Mac/Linux). A relative path can be used in project-specific nuget.config files. This setting is overridden by the NUGET_PACKAGES environment variable, which takes precedence.

repositoryPath (packages.config only)

The location in which to install NuGet packages instead of the default $(Solutiondir)/packages folder. A relative path can be used in project-specific nuget.config files. This setting is overridden by the NUGET_PACKAGES environment variable, which takes precedence.

<config>
    <add key="globalPackagesFolder" value="c:\packageReferences" />
    <add key="repositoryPath" value="c:\packagesConfig" />
</config>

I put Nuget.config next to my solution file and it worked.