NuGet Package

Build agents can also use the NuGet package for installation. See Build Agents for details.

About the NuGet Package

While you may be familiar with using NuGet to add third-party libraries from nuget.org to your projects, the Dotfuscator NuGet package works quite differently:

• The package does not expose libraries for general programming use. Instead, it contains Dotfuscator's various components, which act as independent tools during a build.
• You do not add a reference to the Dotfuscator NuGet package in your project. Instead, you explicitly install the package to a directory and have your builds use the extracted components in that directory.
• The package is not available on the public nuget.org feed. Instead, PreEmptive distributes the package privately, and you must host it on a private feed within your organization.

The package's ID is PreEmptive.Protection.Dotfuscator.Pro. (For customers evaluating Dotfuscator Professional, add .Eval to the end of this ID.)

This page discusses the private NuGet package which contains Dotfuscator itself. There is also a more traditional NuGet package available on nuget.org which contains Check Attributes. Your project can reference this NuGet package and use the provided attributes to annotate your code. When Dotfuscator runs, it recognizes these attributes in your compiled code and injects Checks accordingly.

System Requirements

To install Dotfuscator with the NuGet package, you need a way to install NuGet packages to a local directory. The easiest way is to use the NuGet command line interface (nuget.exe), but you can also use a different NuGet interface or any tool capable of extracting ZIP files. See the Installation Instructions for details.

The package itself has two sets of components, divided into two subdirectories. Each set of components has separate system requirements.

• tools/msbuilddir contains Dotfuscator's MSBuild components. Most developers should use these components, as they integrate into the normal build process of most .NET projects. See the MSBuild Requirements section for details.
• tools/programdir/netcore contains the .NET 6 version of the command line interface. See the Command Line Interface Requirements section for details.

MSBuild Requirements

The requirements for running the MSBuild components installed by the NuGet package are:

• MSBuild - any of the following:
  • MSBuild for .NET Framework: 4.0 or later, running on .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later
  • MSBuild for .NET Core: 16.0 or later, with the .NET 10 SDK installed
  • MSBuild for Mono: 16.0 or later, running on Mono 6.0 or later

You use the MSBuild components, when installed via the NuGet package, in builds running on Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, certain features, such as .pdb file generation, require the full .NET Framework SDK (version 1.1 or later), which is exclusive to Windows.

Supported Development Tools

The table below shows which development tools Dotfuscator supports when you use the NuGet package.

Command Line Interface Requirements

The requirements for running the command line interface installed by the NuGet package are:

• .NET runtime: .NET 6 or later

  Note You must have a .NET 6 runtime of 6.0.0 or later installed. For more information on how .NET selects what runtime to use see here. This limitation does not apply to the version used by processed applications or installed SDKs.

The command line interface, when installed via the NuGet package, can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, certain features, such as .pdb file generation, require the full .NET Framework SDK (version 1.1 or later) which is exclusive to Windows.

Installation Instructions

Your organization may have already hosted the Dotfuscator NuGet package internally. If so, note the NuGet feed URL where the package is hosted.

Otherwise, do the following:

1. Download the NuGet package to your development machine. Go to the Dotfuscator Downloads page and download Dotfuscator Professional's NuGet Package. 
2. Copy the downloaded .nupkg to a new directory.
3. Note the path to this directory as your NuGet feed URL.

Once the NuGet package is hosted or downloaded, you can provision it on your development machine. There are multiple ways to do this, shown in the tabs below.

nuget install PreEmptive.Protection.Dotfuscator.Pro[.Eval] -Version 7.1.4 -OutputDirectory "{out dir}" -ExcludeVersion -Source "{feed url}"

<!-- This is an MSBuild properties file for projects which use Dotfuscator's MSBuild components.
     For details, see <https://www.preemptive.com/dotfuscator/pro/userguide/en/interfaces_msbuild.html#user>.
-->
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <!-- Path where Dotfuscator's MSBuild components are installed via the NuGet package. -->
        <DotfuscatorMSBuildDir>{install dir}/tools/msbuilddir</DotfuscatorMSBuildDir>
        <!-- License string for Dotfuscator. -->
        <DotfuscatorLicense>{license string}</DotfuscatorLicense>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Project>