Error NETSDK1004 occurs when building any C++/CLI project.

Describe the bug

When building any C++ project using the CLR Class Library (.NET) template, the project cannot be successfully built with the MSBuild command line. Instead, it can only be successfully built using Visual Studio 2022. An error, NETSDK1004, occurs when attempting to build the project with MSBuild.

error NETSDK1004: Assets file 'obj\project.ass
ets.json' not found. Run a NuGet package restore to generate this file.

To Reproduce

1. Open Visual Studio 2022 (17.5.3, or 17.6.0 Preview 2.0)
2. Create a new C++ project using the CLR Class Library (.NET) template
3. Create Git Repository for this solution with default .gitignore template
4. Close the Visual Studio instance
5. ‼️important‼️ Use git clean -xdf to clean the entire repo, excluding the project files
6. Open the Terminal and use msbuild -restore to build the solution

Here is a repository containing only the newly created project.

• https://github.com/walterlv/Walterlv.IssueDemo.MSBuildNETSDK1004

Exceptions

Here’s the output:

  C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\7.0.300-preview.23122.5\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolut
ion.targets(266,5): error NETSDK1004: Assets file 'D:\WIP\Desktop\Walterlv.IssueDemo\Walterlv.IssueDemo\obj\project.ass
ets.json' not found. Run a NuGet package restore to generate this file. [D:\WIP\Desktop\Walterlv.IssueDemo\Walterlv.Iss
ueDemo\Walterlv.IssueDemo.vcxproj]

    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)

If you want more detail output, I’ll post it here.

Known Workarounds

• If we open the solution with Visual Studio 2022, simply opening it will ensure that the MSBuild command line works correctly. Opening the project using Visual Studio will create some files within the project, and even after Visual Studio is closed, the MSBuild command line will still function properly.
• When building a C++ project using the CLR Class Library (.NET Framework) template, the MSBuild command line works as expected.

By referring to the official documentation, we can find a workaround by using this command line: devenv SolutionName.sln /Build.

Further technical details

I’ve tested this issue in two Windows machines and both failed:

1. .NET SDK 7.0.202 + Visual Studio 2022 (17.5.3)
2. .NET SDK 7.0.300-preview.23122.5 + Visual Studio 2022 (17.6.0 Preview 2.0)

Here is an info of the 7.0.202 one:

$ dotnet --info
.NET SDK:
 Version:   7.0.202
 Commit:    6c74320bc3

运行时环境:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.22621
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\7.0.202\

Host:
  Version:      7.0.4
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       0a396acafe

.NET SDKs installed:
  5.0.400 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.102 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  8.0.202 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

[lukka]

@gureedo @walterlv @GitDaBytes @bharath-brat thanks for reporting the issue! FYI in Visual Studio 2022 17.7 Preview 2 (released today) there are fixes for CLR .NET projects (aka C++/CLI projects), in particular the projects participating in NuGet’s PackageReference (that is <EnableManagedPackageReferenceSupport>true</>), are now nuget-restored correctly (not skipped anymore), and also they follow correctly the compatibility rules for the TargetPlatformMoniker (identifier and version).

Let us know if you can try it out and report any feedback, thank you.

[GitDaBytes]

FYI - this is also affecting any .NET 6 C++ / CLR projects. All of the above hold true. setting <EnableManagedPackageReferenceSupport>false</EnableManagedPackageReferenceSupport> stops the project compiling in VS2022, but does allow the build to work in our DevOps Build Pipeline.

the error from VS2022 is error : Your project does not reference “.NETCoreApp,Version=v6.0” framework. Add a reference to “.NETCoreApp,Version=v6.0” in the “TargetFrameworks” property of your project file and then re-run NuGet restore.

Attempting the other workaround msbuild /t:restore project.vcxproj appears to only restore pure csharp projects referenced by my C++ dll, and does not generate an assets file for the C++ project.