OctoPack and OD Channels: How to create package version that can be piped into version channel?

Question

We are using Octopus Deploy from TFS using the OctoPack package for convenience. We have a custom .nuspec file (generated on the fly) to pack up the deployment items and it works fine for the current mainline scenario.

Now I'm looking at setting up a pipeline for pre-release of next version in parallel to mainline and seems a channel would be perfect for the job.

However, channels are filtered on e.g. the format 2.0.0-alpha. OctoPack offers some control using the parameter OctoPackAppendToPackageId, but as the documentation calls out that will append an idendifier like

/p:OctoPackAppendToPackageId=foo - Append the extra name to the package ID (e.g. for feature branch packages). MyApp.Foo.1.2.3.nupkg

However, channels are filtered on e.g. the format 2.0.0-alpha, i.e. with any extra suffix after the version number.

Is the conclusion that OctoPack is not really compatible with use of channels, or is there some other way I can either do channel filtering, alternately get OctoPack to produce a name that can be filtered?

Answer 1

Use the OctoPackAppendToVersion parameter instead.