You should be able to run NuKeeper from source code on the command line using dotnet.

e.g. I have the code checked out at C:\Code\NuKeeper. I do

cd C:\Code\NuKeeper\NuKeeper
dotnet run inspect

This is the same as nukeeper inspect C:\Code\NuKeeper\NuKeeper - it runs, the "inspect" command is given to the code, and the current folder is the default target.

When debugging, you often want detailed log verbosity from NuKeeper. However dotnet run inspect -v d does not do what you want - it produces an enormous amount of build output. dotnet is made verbose, not NuKeeper. What you want is dotnet run -- inspect -v d.

With dotnet run inspect -v d, you are running dotnet and it gets first look at the command-line. dotnet understands -v d, in fact the NuKeeper option syntax is patterned after it, and so dotnet consumes this option, and does not pass it to NuKeeper.

The answer is to insert -- as a separator before the options that must go to the program that dotnet is runnng. Often we start commandlines with dotnet run -- just to be clear, rather than thinking about if dotnet will consume a particular option or not.

This works for any options. e.g. dotnet run --help will give you help about dotnet run, and dotnet run -- --help will run the NuKeeper code and produce help output from it.

See the dotnet run documentation for more.

You can also debug in the IDE. In Visual Studio:

• Set the NuKeeper project as the startup project by right-clicking and selecting "Set as StartUp project".
• Add command-line arguments for the run:
  • Open the project properties: Right-click NuKeeper again, select "Properties" on the menu.
  • Select the "Debug" tab of the project properties, and enter the "application arguments", e.g. inspect -v d. In this case, you might need a souce control token in the "application arguments" or environmanr vars.
• Now you can set breakpoints and run to them.