error NETSDK1005: Assets file 'D:\a\1\s\...\project.assets.json' doesn't have a target for '.NETStandard,Version=v1.5'

[AArnott]

Very similar to #1321, except that it works fine on my own machine, but consistently fails when run in Azure Pipelines.

C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\dncs\2.1.500\x64\sdk\2.1.500\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolution.targets(198,5): error NETSDK1005: Assets file 'D:\a\1\s\obj\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.LocalizationShell\project.assets.json' doesn't have a target for '.NETStandard,Version=v1.5'. Ensure that restore has run and that you have included 'netstandard1.5' in the TargetFrameworks for your project. [D:\a\1\s\src\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.LocalizationShell\Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.LocalizationShell.csproj]

The LocalizationShell project targets netstandard1.0, and is referenced by a multitargeting project that targets several frameworks including netstandard1.5.

The odd thing is this works on my machine, on AppVeyor, and even on Azure Pipelines in the past. But now it's consistently failing.

This may be a dupe of #2563

[AArnott]

Please note that all the project.assets.json files and the verbose msbuild log are all available from the Azure Pipeline build I link to above as build artifacts.

[AArnott]

I think this may be a regression in 15.9.x, since commits we were able to build a couple months ago can no longer be built.

[nguerrera]

Looking at binlog, there is something wrong in TFM negotiation between P2P here. Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition is building Microsoft.VisualStudio.LocalizationShell with TargetFramework=netstandard1.5 global property, which is not a valid TFM for the latter.

There's a solution build dependency that triggers this. This looks like another bug I investigated a little while ago, but I do not recall the msbuild versions impacted. I will search for it.

[nguerrera]

Looks exactly like dotnet/msbuild#3626, but that was supposed to be fixed in 15.9, not caused by 15.9.

cc @rainersigwald

[nguerrera]

Binlog has this:

MSBuildVersion = 15.8.169

@AArnott Is it possible you downgraded to 15.8 RTM from 15.9 preview in pipelines rather than upgraded to 15.9 RTM?

[nguerrera]

Could also have happened if pipelines was previously on 15.7 and now moved to 15.8. That's where the actual regression happened, and it was fixed in 15.9. Actually upgrading to 15.9 should resolve this.

[AArnott]

Thanks, @nguerrera. Unfortunately I can't influence when these cloud build hosts upgrade to 15.9.

But since you mentioned solution dependencies are involved (which I rarely use, but do in this solution), I tried simply removing the solution dep, which I can't remember why I even needed. I'll see if I can get that route to work. :)

[nguerrera]

Duplicate of dotnet/msbuild#3626

[AArnott]

Ya, removing the solution dependency (and using ProjectReference with a ReferenceOutputAssembly=false metadata) made an adequate workaround.
Thanks again.