Cake.Paket.Module

In order to use paket instead of nuget in the preprocessor directive e.g. #tool paket:?package=Cake.Foo and/or #addin paket:?package=Cake.Bar, you need to include Cake.Paket.Module and ensure cake can find the module.

Basic Usage

Although the following directory structure is not required, we'll use it for our example

|-build.cake
|-build.ps1
|-build.sh
|-.paket
|      |-paket.bootsrapper.exe
|-packages
         |-...

The packages directroy is defined by dependency groups in the paket.dependencies file. Let's assume it looks like

# tools
group tools
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget NUnit.ConsoleRunner=3.4.0
    nuget JetBrains.ReSharper.CommandLineTools
    nuget Cake # Get Cake.exe

# addins
group addins
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget Cake.Figlet

# modules
group modules
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget Cake.Paket.Module

It's also good practice to create a cake bootstrapper script. The script will restore the dependencies and run Cake.exe. It can be as simple as

build.ps1

# Download paket.exe
.\.paket\paket.bootstraper.exe

# Restore the dependencies
.\.paket\paket.exe restore

# Run Cake script and specify the location of the modules directory
.\packages\tools\Cake\Cake.exe --paths_modules=.\packages\modules

build.sh

# Download paket.exe
./.paket/paket.bootstraper.exe

# Restore the dependencies
./.paket/paket.exe restore

# Run Cake script and specify the location of the modules directory
exec mono ./packages/tools/Cake/Cake.exe --paths_modules=./packages/modules

Our cake script can now use paket

// Use paket instead of nuget in the preprocessor directive.
// You need to specify the paket group in the URI.
#tool paket:?package=NUnit.ConsoleRunner&group=tools
#tool paket:?package=JetBrains.ReSharper.CommandLineTools&group=tools
#addin paket:?package=Cake.Figlet&group=addins

...

As you can see, we replaced nuget with paket and specified the group in the URI. Think of this as a replacement for the paket.references file. Furthermore, you can't specify a version in the URI; this is handeled by the paket.dependencies file. Also, we specified the module directory location uisng the flag paths_modules. See default configuration values for more information.

Removing Groups from the URI

If you create dependency groups that correspond to cakes tool/addin directory path, you can avoid using groups in the URI

build.ps1

# Download paket.exe
.\.paket\paket.bootstraper.exe

# Restore the dependencies
.\.paket\paket.exe restore

# Run Cake script and specify the location of the modules, tools, and addins directory
.\packages\tools\Cake\Cake.exe --paths_modules=.\packages\modules --paths_tools=.\packages\tools --paths_addins=.\packages\addins

build.sh

# Download paket.exe
./.paket/paket.bootstraper.exe

# Restore the dependencies
./.paket/paket.exe restore

# Run Cake script and specify the location of the modules, tools, and addins directory
exec mono ./packages/tools/Cake/Cake.exe --paths_modules=./packages/modules --paths_tools=./packages/tools --paths_addins=./packages/addins

and our cake script can be simplified to

// Use paket instead of nuget in the preprocessor directive.
// You don't need to specify the paket group in the URI.
#tool paket:?package=NUnit.ConsoleRunner
#tool paket:?package=JetBrains.ReSharper.CommandLineTools
#addin paket:?package=Cake.Figlet

...

As you can see, we removed the group from the URI. This is because we grouped the tools and addins into the tools and addins group in the paket.dependencies file. Then, we passed this information to Cake.exe using the paths_tools and paths_addins flag. See default configuration values for more information.

A quick tip is to configure the tools path as --paths_tools=.\packages, then you don't need groups in the tool URI ever. This is because cakes tool locator handles it for you. However, for projects with many dependencies, you may see a performance increase by specifing the group in the tool URI and/or restricting the tool path.

Complex Dependency Groups

You can group the paket.dependencies file however you want! For example,

1. You don't need to use tools, addins, and modules for the group names.
2. You can put the tools/addins in any group you want, they don't even need to be in the same group.

Let's consider the complex dependency file

# This is the same as using: group main
source https://nuget.org/api/v2
nuget NUnit.ConsoleRunner=3.4.0

group build/setup
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget Cake.Figlet

# tools
group tools
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget JetBrains.ReSharper.CommandLineTools
    nuget Cake

# addins
group addins
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget Cake.Paket

# modules
group modules
    source https://nuget.org/api/v2
    nuget Cake.Paket.Module

and the cake script becomes

#tool paket:?package=NUnit.ConsoleRunner&group=main
#tool paket:?package=JetBrains.ReSharper.CommandLineTools
#addin paket:?package=Cake.Figlet&group=build/setup
#addin paket:?package=Cake.Paket
...

where the bootstrapper script from the the last section was used.

A quick reminder is that in paket, if you don't place a dependency in a group, it's place in the main group.

Don't use the Legacy Preprocessor Notation

You'll see the legacy notation for tools and addins e.g. #addin Cake.Figlet. Since this is equivelent to #addin nuget:?package=Cake.Figlet you should not use it.