dotnet Restore (& therefore msbuild /t:restore) skips projects with an explicit solution project dependency

[natemcmaster]

Calling "msbuild.exe /t:Restore" on a solution skips a project in my solution.
This project has an explicit project dependency in the solution file.

Repro

1. Download https:/aspnet/BuildTools/tree/4ec80c34339019266353e6e557f7ca68c89fbdb3
2. dotnet restore BuildTools.sln

Expected
Restores all csproj reference .sln file.

Actual
Skips NugetPackageVerifier.csproj
(see restore log here: https://gist.github.com/natemcmaster/016baf3563e369551d8f4c88cf9dcce0)

Details
msbuild.exe 15.0.26209.0
dotnet.exe 1.0.0-rc4-004771

Right click on solution -> Project Dependencies

Or see the raw BuildTools.sln

cc @emgarten

[emgarten]

Thanks for the repro @natemcmaster

Restore reads the solution metaproj for all project references. For this solution I see it puts the reference to NuGetPackageVerifier in an external metaproj file and references it.

    <ProjectReference Include="C:\src\repros\BuildTools\src\NuGetPackageVerifier\NuGetPackageVerifier.csproj.metaproj">
      <ToolsVersion>15.0</ToolsVersion>
      <SkipNonexistentProjects>Build</SkipNonexistentProjects>
      <AdditionalProperties>Configuration=Debug; Platform=Any CPU</AdditionalProperties>
      <Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
      <Platform>AnyCPU</Platform>
    </ProjectReference>

I believe restore has had issues with these in the past and ignores them because they don't actually exist when it tries to resolve them.

@rainersigwald what is the best way to get the set of top level projects from a solution file?

Would it work to strip the .metaproj extension from these paths and continue walking them?

[rainersigwald]

That's not a good way but I do think it might be the best way.

References are added to the metaproj by this code which only adds either a direct reference or, if there's something special about the project, a reference to its metaproj. Filed dotnet/msbuild#1694 to consider creating an item with the contents you expect (definitely not for RTW though).

Hopefully no user has a real file on disk ending with .metaproj but you might try adding both under an if-exists clause.

[rrelyea]

Got another email complaint about this today from an external customer via @Pilchie

[davkean]

I also just ran into this: #4845