title: Why does my .NET Standard NuGet package trigger so many dependencies?
body: <p>I've been mucking about with <a href="https://github.com/tdwright/contabs" rel="noreferrer">a .NET Standard project</a> and NuGet. I've got a working project and have <a href="https://www.nuget.org/packages/ConTabs.tdwright/0.1.0" rel="noreferrer">uploaded it to NuGet.org</a>. My project targets .NET Standard 1.3, which <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/net-standard" rel="noreferrer">should support</a> .NET Framework 4.6 and .NET Core 1.0.</p>
  
  <p>But when I tried to add my project (via NuGet) to a fresh .NET Framework 4.6 project, the dependencies resolved to <strong>47</strong> packages! They're all system libraries and appear to be dependencies of either Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms or NETStandard.Library 1.6.1. (<a href="https://gist.github.com/tdwright/0b3568a9da2e318fe6e3c2efc40fcff4" rel="noreferrer">Gist of full PM output.</a>)</p>
  
  <p>My project only imports (<code>using</code>) a handful of libraries, none of which I added manually; i.e. they're all libraries that "came with" .NET Standard. These libraries are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>System</li>
  <li>System.Text</li>
  <li>System.Reflection</li>
  <li>System.Linq</li>
  <li>System.Collections.Generic;</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>The thing is, I decided to make my project target .NET Standard because I wanted it to work seamlessly across .NET Framework and .NET Core applications. I thought the whole point of Standard was to set a minimum level of compatibility. By extension, I suppose I had assumed (perhaps erroneously) that libraries like System.Console would be automatically available in either Core or Framework.</p>
  
  <p>I didn't notice anything like this when I tested my Standard project as a dependency in a Framework and Core project within the same solution, so I'm suspicious that this might be a NuGet thing.</p>
  
  <p>What's really going on here? And how can I make my .NET Standard library available on NuGet without a huge list of dependencies?</p>
  
  <p>Is it a problem with the way I've specified my NuGet package? Or have I fundamentally misunderstood something?</p>