nugraph 0.5.0

nugraph is a .NET tool for creating visual dependency graphs of NuGet packages and .NET projects.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's the dependency graph produced by running

nugraph Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console

Installation

dotnet tool install --global nugraph

Usage

nugraph can generate dependency graphs for either a single NuGet package or for an exising .NET project. Run nugraph --help to see all the supported options.

NuGet package mode

Run nugraph <NuGetPackageName> to generate the dependency graph of a NuGet package. For example, run nugraph Serilog.Sinks.File to generate the dependency graph of the Serilog.Sinks.File package.

A specific version can be explicitly requested by appending /version to the package name, for example nugraph Serilog.Sinks.File/4.1.0. When no version is specified, the latest version available on NuGet is chosen.

Many packages support multiple target frameworks and sometimes the dependencies varies across different target frameworks. A target framework is guessed automatically, but it can be overriden with the -f or --framework option.

.NET project mode

In addition to NuGet packages graphs, nugraph can also create graphs of .NET projects, i.e. .csproj, .fsproj and .vbproj files.

Without any argument, nugraph creates the graph of the project in the current working directory. An existing directory or an existing project file can also be passed explicitly. Under the hood, nugraph calls dotnet restore to resolve dependencies, so any private NuGet feeds configured in NuGet.config will just work.

Here's an example with an open source project that produces a large graph. The ignore option (-i) is used to remove all the System.* and Humanizer.Core.* packages to make the graph more readable. The --no-links option is also specified to smooth using the excellent Graphviz Interactive Preview extension for Visual Studio Code.

git clone https://github.com/nopSolutions/nopCommerce
nugraph nopCommerce/src/Presentation/Nop.Web/Nop.Web.csproj -o nopCommerce.gv -i "System.*" -i "Humanizer.Core.*" --no-links
code nopCommerce.gv

When a node is selected in Graphviz Interactive Preview, all the connected nodes are highlighted and the non-connected nodes are dimmed. This helps to understand how a single dependency is used. Here's what happens when the Microsoft.Data.SqlClient node is selected.

Output

To write the dependency graph to a file, use the -o or --output options. If the output file name ends with either .mmd or .mermaid a Mermaid file will be written. Otherwise, a Graphviz file will be written. Suggested extensions for Graphviz files are .gv or .dot.

When no output options is specified, the format can be chosen with the -m or --format option. The default browser will be opened to one of the supported online services.

Mermaid

For example, run nugraph Microsoft.Data.SqlClient -m mmd.svg to open the graph as an SVG file rendered in the default browser using the Mermaid Ink service.

Graphviz

For example, run nugraph Microsoft.Data.SqlClient -m dot to open the graph in the Edotor interactive service.