Donovan Brown

I have recently noticed a lot of questions about ignoring the packages folder when using Team Foundation Server Version control. I read a lot of solutions but none seemed to work for me.  Then I realized I needed a little bit of information from all the solutions to get it to work.  In this post I will explain exactly how I got TFVC to ignore my packages folder.

At the solution level create a folder named .nuget.  You have to create this folder from Source Control Explorer in Visual Studio because you cannot create a folder the begins with a period in Windows Explorer. 

1. Open Source Control Explorer
2. Navigate to the folder with your .sln file
3. Right-click the background
4. Select New Folder
5. Name the folder .nuget

Create a file named nuget.config in the .nuget folder.

1. Select File / New / File…
2. Select XML File
3. Click Open
4. Copy and paste the text below into the file:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <configuration>
      <solution>
         <add key="disableSourceControlIntegration" value="true" />
      </solution>
   </configuration>

5. Press Ctrl+S
6. Navigate to the .nuget folder
7. Name the file nuget.config
8. Click Save

Now we need to create the .tfignore file at the solution level.

1. Right-click on the solution
2. Select Add / New Item…
3. Select Text File
4. Name the file .tfignore
5. Copy and paste the text below into the file:

   packages

6. Save all the files
7. Check both .tfignore and nuget.config files into source control
   
8. Close Visual Studio

Now you can restart Visual Studio and open your solution.  Now when you add NuGet packages they will not be added to source control.  I also recorded a video for this that you can view below.