Can't resolve System.Management.Automation from GAC for net451 project

I’m having trouble creating a desktop .NET 4.5.1 console application that references the PowerShell API DLL System.Management.Automation. When I set my frameworkAssemblies to refer to this DLL I get a compiler error. I also notice that Visual Studio’s completion results don’t contain this DLL:

What am I doing wrong?

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a new console app project using dotnet new.
2. Update project.json to the contents below
3. Run dotnet restore
4. Run dotnet compile

project.json

{
    "version": "1.0.0-*",
    "compilationOptions": {
        "emitEntryPoint": true
    },

    "frameworks": {
        "net451": {
          "frameworkAssemblies": {
            "System.Management.Automation": ""
          }
        }
    }
}

Expected behavior

Code compiles successfully, resolves System.Management.Automation.dll.

Actual behavior

Compile error:

PS> dotnet compile
Compiling dotnetrepro for .NETFramework,Version=v4.5.1
C:\dev\dotnetrepro\project.json(10,45): error NU1001: The dependency System.Management.Automation could not be resolved.

Compilation failed.
    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)

Time elapsed 00:00:02.3045736

Environment data

dotnet --version output:

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.11082
 OS Platform: Windows
 Runtime Id:  win10-x64

[daviwil]

I’m referring to the NuGet packages we released which contain reference assemblies (only metadata):

• PowerShell 3
• PowerShell 4
• PowerShell 5

If you compile a .NET 4.5.x app against one of those NuGet packages then the PowerShell assemblies from the GAC will be loaded in your app at runtime. However, you’ll need to compile against the reference assemblies for the version of PowerShell used on the target machine otherwise you might get MissingMethodExceptions, etc. I’d recommend using the PowerShell 5 package if you’re targeting Windows 10 machines.

[Arnavion]

@daviwil I have the same question. What packages does “compiling against our official reference assembly packages” refer to? Presumably not the ancient ones that turn up in nuget when searching for “System.Management.Automation”…