[dotnet pack] Why does .nupkg include symbols with or without --include-symbols ?

[paulmedynski]

When I dotnet pack my project, the .nupkg file always contains symbols (.pdb files), regardless of the --include-symbols option (or <IncludeSymbols> property) being true, false, or unset. Is there a way to inhibit symbols from being included in the .nupkg file?

For example, my .csproj contains this:

 <PropertyGroup>
    <IncludeSymbols>true</IncludeSymbols>
    <SymbolPackageFormat>snupkg</SymbolPackageFormat>
  </PropertyGroup>

When I dotnet pack, I'm expecting to get two NuGet packages:

• .nupkg containing the artifacts, without any symbols.
• .snupkg containing the symbols associated to the artifacts in the .nupkg.

Regardless of true/false (or omitted) for <IncludeSymbols>, the .nupkg always includes symbols.

I would like to publish my .nupkg without any symbols to keep it lean, and publish the .snupkg for debugging as-needed.

Am I missing a .csproj property to enable this behaviour? Is my expectation valid?

.NET SDK:
 Version:           9.0.302
 Commit:            bb2550b9af
 Workload version:  9.0.300-manifests.183aaee6
 MSBuild version:   17.14.13+65391c53b

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     debian
 OS Version:  12
 OS Platform: Linux
 RID:         linux-x64
 Base Path:   /usr/share/dotnet/sdk/9.0.302/

Thanks!
-Paul

[paulmedynski]

I've converted this into an issue #14428 for greater visibility.

[Frulfump]

Was that stated somewhere or did you imply it from your discussion being ignored for 19 hours?

[paulmedynski]

Edited my previous comment for accuracy after misunderstanding a ping from one of the maintainers.