Git dependencies

Paket allows you to automatically manage the linking of files from any Git repository.

This feature assumes that you have git installed. If you don't have git installed then Paket still allows you to reference files from GitHub.

Referencing a Git repository

You can reference a complete Git repository by specifying the clone URL in the paket.dependencies file:

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git https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket.git
git git@github.com:fsharp/FAKE.git

This will clone the repository, checkout the latest version of the default branch and put it into your paket-files directory.

If you want to restrict Paket to a special branch, tag or a concrete commit then this is also possible:

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git https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket.git master
git https://github.com/forki/AskMe.git 97ee5ae7074bdb414a3e5dd7d2f2d752547d0542
git https://github.com/forki/AskMe.git 97ee5ae7074b // Short hash.
git https://github.com/forki/FsUnit.git 1.0         // Tag.
git file:///C:\Users\Steffen\AskMe master           // Local git repository.

Referencing Git tags

Paket allows you to specify version ranges for Git tags similar to NuGet version ranges:

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git https://github.com/fsprojects/Paket.git >= 1.0 // At least 1.0
git http://github.com/forki/AskMe.git < 3.0        // Lower than version 3.0
git http://github.com/forki/AskMe.git ~> 2.0       // 2.0 <= x < 3.0
git https://github.com/forki/FsUnit.git 1.0        // Exactly 1.0
git file:///C:\Users\Steffen\AskMe >= 1 alpha      // At least 1.0 including alpha versions
git file:///C:\Users\Steffen\AskMe >= 1 prerelease // At least 1.0 including prereleases

You can read more about the version range details in the corresponding NuGet reference section.

Running a build in Git repositories

If your referenced Git repository contains a build script then Paket can execute this script after restore:

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git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master build: "build.cmd", OS: windows
git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master build: "build.sh", OS: mono

This allows you to execute arbitrary commands after restore.

NOTE: This functionality uses the .NET Process API, with UseShellExecute set to true. This means that on Windows your command will execute in a cmd.exe context. If your build is not a .bat file, you will need to fully qualify the command with the shell program to run as well, like this:

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Using Git repositories as NuGet source

With pre-built, checked-in nupgks

If you have NuGet packages inside a git repository you can easily use the repository as a NuGet source from the paket.dependencies file:

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git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master Packages: /bin/

nuget Argu

The generated paket.lock file will look like this:

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NUGET
    remote: paket-files/github.com/forki/nupkgtest/bin
    Argu (1.1.3)
GIT
    remote: https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git
        (05366e390e7552a569f3f328a0f3094249f3b93b)

Building nupkg on install

It's also possible to run build scripts to create the NuGet packages when installing/restoring with paket:

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git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master build: "dotnet pack", Packages: /bin/Debug

nuget Argu

NOTE: this assumes that the name of the package is Argu which can't be inferred in this case since no *.fsproj or .sln file is present in the example repository

Arbitrary build scripts

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git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master build: "build.cmd", Packages: /source/, OS: windows
git https://github.com/forki/nupkgtest.git master build: "build.sh", Packages: /source/, OS: mono

nuget Argu

In this sample we have different build scripts for Mono and Windows. Both of the specified scripts simply copy the prebuilt nupkgs from /bin to /source

Actually using the package

Don't forget to also add your dependency to the paket.references file.