Fix: InitializeStandardNuspecProperties must run before _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack

[Copilot]

NuGet's GetPackOutputItemsTask added NuspecFile and NuspecProperties as inputs to _GetOutputItemsFromPack, which runs inside _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack — before GenerateNuspec. Arcade's InitializeStandardNuspecProperties only declared BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec", so NuspecProperties was unset when _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack ran, breaking .nuspec-based projects (e.g. aspnetcore).

Changes

• src/Microsoft.DotNet.Arcade.Sdk/tools/Workarounds.targets: Add _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack to BeforeTargets on InitializeStandardNuspecProperties so NuspecProperties is populated before either pack target reads it.

<Target Name="InitializeStandardNuspecProperties"
        BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec;_CalculateInputsOutputsForPack"
        ...>

To double check:

• The right tests are in and the right validation has happened. Guidance: https://github.com/dotnet/arcade/blob/main/Documentation/Validation.md

• Fixes InitializeStandardNuspecProperties should run before _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack #17226

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[Youssef1313]

@copilot I think <GenerateNuspecDependsOn>$(GenerateNuspecDependsOn);InitializeStandardNuspecProperties</GenerateNuspecDependsOn> is safer to avoid depending on a private target name.

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[Copilot]

@copilot I think <GenerateNuspecDependsOn>$(GenerateNuspecDependsOn);InitializeStandardNuspecProperties</GenerateNuspecDependsOn> is safer to avoid depending on a private target name.

Done in the latest commit. Replaced BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec" with GenerateNuspecDependsOn to use the public NuGet extension point. Kept BeforeTargets="_CalculateInputsOutputsForPack" since that's the private target that was changed by NuGet to read NuspecProperties as an incremental-build input — we still need to guarantee ordering there.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Suppressed comments (1)

src/Microsoft.DotNet.Arcade.Sdk/tools/Workarounds.targets:60

• InitializeStandardNuspecProperties is no longer scheduled to run before _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack. Adding it to GenerateNuspecDependsOn only orders it relative to GenerateNuspec, but _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack can run earlier (and is the target that now consumes NuspecProperties as an incremental input). Re-add BeforeTargets (as described in the PR) so NuspecProperties is populated before both targets execute.

  <Target Name="InitializeStandardNuspecProperties"
          DependsOnTargets="_InitializeNuspecRepositoryInformationPropertiesWorkaround"
          Condition="'$(IsPackable)' == 'true'">

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

[Youssef1313]

dotnet/aspnetcore#68086 (comment) seems like this PR would only fix part of the problem. But I assume the remaining part of the fix will be on NuGet side so that the ID is read from the NuspecProperties.

[Evangelink]

I verified this empirically rather than by inspection, and the fix is correct. Notes below — none of them blocking.

Verification

The diagnosis is right. MSBuild runs DependsOnTargets before BeforeTargets. Minimal repro:

== Dep1  →  == Dep2  →  == Before1 (BeforeTargets)  →  == Main

So BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec" scheduled the target after the entire GenerateNuspec dependency chain, including _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack → _GetOutputItemsFromPack.

The fix works. I simulated the real pack target graph (GenerateNuspecDependsOn as built at lines 32/55/59 of NuGet.Build.Tasks.Pack.targets, plus GenerateNuspec DependsOnTargets="$(GenerateNuspecDependsOn);_CalculateInputsOutputsForPack;…"):

	what _GetOutputItemsFromPack sees
before (BeforeTargets="GenerateNuspec")	NuspecProperties='' ❌
after (GenerateNuspecDependsOn)	NuspecProperties='PackageId=Foo;Version=1.2.3' ✅

Import-order robust. NuGet appends $(GenerateNuspecDependsOn) at the tail of its own list and prepends Build;, so this lands last in the list but still strictly before _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack — regardless of whether Workarounds.targets is imported before or after the pack targets.

Moving the target earlier is safe within Arcade. Everything it reads (PackageDescription, PackageLicenseFullPath, PackageIconFullPath, PackageVersion, …) is set at evaluation time in ProjectDefaults.props/.targets; the only target-produced values (RepositoryUrl/RepositoryCommit) come from its own DependsOnTargets. It also matches Pack.targets:5, which already uses this pattern — final chain ends …;InitializeStandardNuspecProperties;_ValidationSymbolPackageFormat, both still ahead of _CalculateInputsOutputsForPack.

Two things not covered by the inline comments

Necessary but not sufficient — worth saying so in the PR body. Per the aspnetcore investigation, GetPackOutputItemsTask unconditionally overwrites packageId with nuspecReader.GetId() whenever NuspecFile != ''. Arcade's $CommonMetadataElements$ composite token means the .nuspec has no literal <id> element, so GetId() returns empty and you get an output path like .11.0.0-dev.nupkg. This PR fixes only the version half. Please state that here and link a NuGet.Client issue so nobody assumes this unblocks aspnetcore on its own.

No regression coverage. There is no project in this repo using NuspecFile or NuspecPackageId, so green CI proves nothing about this code path and it can silently regress again. A scenario test that packs with a NuspecFile + $CommonMetadataElements$ and asserts the emitted nupkg name would be worth it — the "right tests are in" checkbox is still unchecked.

[Evangelink]

Nit: 3-space indent here, the file uses 2 everywhere else.

Also worth splitting the comment block: the original "Workarounds for insufficient support for tools packages…" text describes the <Target>, but it's now separated from it by the new <PropertyGroup>. Keeping that paragraph adjacent to the target and putting the new NuGet-ordering rationale directly above the PropertyGroup would read better.

[Youssef1313]

Line 39 has the 3-space indent. I wouldn't care that much here honestly to make everything in this file consistent.