ProGet symbol proxy

[jw]

Hi,

we're currently looking to migrate away from Nexus and one feature that is missing is a proxy server for symbols.

https://github.com/sonatype-nexus-community/nexus-repository-microsoft-symbol-server

The proxy should essentially behave similar to a NuGet caching proxy for nuget.org, but instead for the Microsoft and the NuGet symbol servers.

Can this be done somehow or are there plans to support this?

[Dan_Woolf]

Hi @lm,

Thanks for this request. We currently support some ways of hosting a symbol server in ProGet, but in ProGet v2023 we are looking to expand this support, including source links. I will bring the request for adding a symbol server proxy to ProGet to the products team to evaluate further and let you know what we decide.

Thanks,
Dan

[stevedennis]

Hi @lm ,

Can you give a little more insight into the use case for this? Why would you want to proxy these symbols?

There doesn't seem to be much gained by caching/proxying symbols, since the symbols basically contain a pointer to a public GitHub repository (or a public source server with the older format of PDB), which wouldn't be practical to cache/proxy.

Cheers,
Steve

[jw]

Pretty much for the same reason to cache NuGet packages from nuget.org.

• Performance in the local network
• Being able to continue working during internet outages or when "the cloud" decides to take a break
• Having a backup of a 3rd party resource one does not control

[atripp]

Hi @lm , just to clarify...

How do you use symbol files? Is it to "browse / step-in to code" using a debugger in Visual Studio?

If so, caching/proxying symbols wouldn't help with those items, since the PDB is really just providing a URL to the public internet.

Cheers,
Alana

[jw]

You're right, caching SourceLink enabled PDBs would be somewhat useless for outages.

Though there are still plenty of "old-school" PDBs around, especially for native code (C/C++).