Discovering Package Management Tools

Design and Implementation of a Package Management Strategy

Introduction

In this lesson, we explore package management in Azure DevOps and GitHub—critical components of modern software development and CI/CD pipelines. We’ll start by defining package management, then highlight why it matters. Finally, we’ll dive into four main tools:

• Azure Artifacts
• GitHub Packages
• NuGet
• npm

Key Package Management Tools at a Glance

Azure Artifacts

Azure Artifacts is a universal package management solution built into Azure DevOps. It allows teams to:

• Store and version packages in one central location
• Proxy public registries using upstream sources
• Integrate directly with Azure Pipelines for seamless CI/CD

# Example: Publish a NuGet package in Azure Pipelines
steps:
  - task: NuGetCommand@2
    inputs:
      command: 'push'
      packagesToPush: '**/*.nupkg'
      publishVstsFeed: 'your-feed-name'

GitHub Packages

GitHub Packages is GitHub’s integrated registry, working with GitHub Actions and repository permissions.

• Authentication: Uses your GitHub account credentials
• Supported Formats: npm, NuGet, Maven, RubyGems, Docker, and more
• Access Control: Repository-level permissions and fine-grained scopes

# Example: Publish npm package with GitHub Actions
name: Publish npm Package
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'v*.*.*'
jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: npm publish
        env:
          NODE_AUTH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

NuGet

NuGet is the de facto package manager for the .NET ecosystem, providing:

• Distribution of libraries and CLI tools
• Integration with Visual Studio and the .NET CLI
• Automatic dependency resolution and semantic versioning

# Install a package
dotnet add package Newtonsoft.Json --version 13.0.1

# Restore dependencies
dotnet restore

npm

npm is the largest registry for JavaScript and Node.js packages, featuring:

• Over a million modules and growing
• Simple commands: npm install, npm update
• Scripts, semantic versioning, and built-in security audits

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run a project script
npm run build

# Audit for vulnerabilities
npm audit fix

Further Reading

• Azure Artifacts Documentation
• GitHub Packages
• NuGet Docs
• npm Documentation