Closing as dupe of dotnet/sdk#2142

This feature would reduce 16 lines down to 11 lines, a 30% reduction in boilerplate in your project file. Before: 🙊

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>

    <PackageIcon>icon.png</PackageIcon>
    <PackageReadmeFile>README.md</PackageReadmeFile>
    <PackageLicenseFile>LICENSE.txt</PackageLicenseFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="README.md" Pack="true" PackagePath="\"/>
    <None Include="icon.png" Pack="true" PackagePath="\"/>
    <None Include="LICENSE.txt" Pack="true" PackagePath="\"/>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

After: 😎

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>

    <NewPackageIcon>icon.png</NewPackageIcon>
    <NewPackageReadmeFile>README.md</NewPackageReadmeFile>
    <NewPackageLicenseFile>LICENSE.txt</NewPackageLicenseFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

Reopening after offline chat with Chris. This feature request synergizes well - but is separate - from dotnet/sdk#2142. This issue is separate as licenses, icons, and readmes must be labeled in the package's generated .nuspec manifest.

I like this idea, but what about taking it to the extreme and defaulting all the values based on naming conventions?

<!-- if the user doesn't explicitly specify the icon, default it to the projectname.png or icon.png if they exist -->
<NewPackageIcon Condition="$(NewPackageIcon) == '' And Exists($(MSBuildProjectName).png)">$(MSBuildProjectName).png</NewPackageIcon>
<NewPackageIcon Condition="$(NewPackageIcon) == '' And Exists(icon.png)">icon.png</NewPackageIcon>

How often would a user be surprised by this as a default behavior? Is it likely that there would be an icon.png, README.txt or LICENSE.txt in the project root that the user doesn't want to be used as the package asset? I suppose this would be a breaking change to existing package creation, so maybe a opt-in to this behavior would be necessary.

After 🤩:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <UseNugetDefaults>true</UseNugetDefaults>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

Or maybe <UseNugetDefaults>1</UseNugetDefaults> , so that the defaults can be versioned in the future and allow users to opt-in by bumping the number, akin to LangVersion for C#.

I believe simplifying the single line defaults should be accomplished easily today & if users want to continue to do the multi-line approach with custom paths, they can do that.

Instead of another MSBuild property, I would encourage an empowering error message if the asset is not found in either experience (default or custom paths).

In other words, if you opt into the metadata, you should be guided towards being successful using it without needing to opt-in to another feature or reading documentation. You should be able to be guided by error messages if you do something wrong.

Would greatly appreciate this. Trying to add a readme file, and pack isn't finding it giving NU5039 and I have no idea why... Have both PackageReadmeFile and the pack item.