I have a .NET 4.5 C# unit test project that fails to build for some reason.  This is the error.

Error21 The "BuildShadowTask" task failed unexpectedly.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.BuildShadowReferences.BuildShadowTask.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute()
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.<ExecuteInstantiatedTask>d__20.MoveNext()CT.iMagio2.Dal.Documents.Tests

This error is greek to me.  What does it mean?  How do I resolve it?

Have just downloaded vs 2012 ultimate and when I go to build  c ++ programs it gives me this error

1>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(347,5): error : Required file "tracker.exe" is missing.

Any suggestions I'm running on windows 7 64 bit laptop

Hello,

After looking through similar questions on this forum and researching online and try to debug this myself, I am stumped. 

First, I was running this pre-build event script in a VB project on a Windows XP sp3 machine just fine. Now, after converting this to a C# project running on a Windows 8 machine, I am trying to run the same pre-build event command line.

I am using the "SolutionDir" macro: C:\Projects\TestProject\

And here is the Pre-build event command line:

set SolutionDir=$(SolutionDir)
@"$(SolutionDir)MISC\PreBuildEvent.cmd"

And here is the "PreBuildEvent.cmd" file located in C:\Projects\TestProject_CS\MISC

When I build, it is successful except for this error:

I could probably try an absolute path but I shouldn't have to do that. I checked the security and I can't find anything crazy going on with that either.

Any suggestions as to what I may be overlooking would be greatly appreciated. I can't understand why it worked before and now it isn't.

Thanks,

Buster

Hi,

I'm observing some strange build behavior after having migrated a VS2008 solution to VS2012 (standard one-way-migration that is done when opening an "old" solution with VS2012). While the build process runs successfully in VS2008, the process appears to be trapped in some sort of deadlock/infinite loop.

Both solutions (stripped down to the essential things) are available here.

Here's the logic of the solution in VS2008:

• Two projects: BuildProject and ClassLibrary1
• The BuildProject.csproj has been edited manually
  - DefaultTarget = CustomBuild
  - CustomBuild-Target: Call MSBuild-Task for the solution.
  - So, the BuildProject itself has no contents. It is intended to execute some custom MSBuild actions when being built, and these actions include the building of the solution
  - Note that in Solution's Configuration Properties the Build option has been unchecked for BuildProject (otherwise - not surprisingly - VS would detect a circular dependency)

When I build the BuildProject in VS2008, the process completes and a built ClassLibrary1.dll can be found at the according target directory. 

When I build the BuildProject in VS2012 (after one-way-migration), the Build output window remains empty and VS indicates an ongoing build process in its status bar. The ClassLibrary1 will not be built. When I cancel the build after a while, the outputs of the Message task included in the CustomBuild target will flushed to the output window.



Interesting: when I use the MSBuild.exe (.net v4.5) at command line to build the BuildProject (migrated by VS2012)m everything works fine. 

Please note, that I'm keen on getting the backgrounds for this weird behavior. I'm pretty much aware that the CustomBuild logic might appear useless to others and that workarounds might be found that include changing the whole logic of the CustomBuild Target. But my question tends to be investigative and I hope someone out there has an explaination of what's going on here and what changes to the build process in VS2012 caused this behavior. 

Regards,
 adarjo

I'm sure that this has only happened since i started using VS2013.  Progressively, the task list is filling up with MSBuild processes (along with conhost.exe - one for each as far as I can tell).

It looks like it starts off (after a machine reboot) with 7 MSBuilds - I'm guessing one per core?  But is building up quickly (after it gets crowded enough, it stops building).

Is this a known bug with VS2013?  Is there a workaround for it?

Not too long ago I wrote a custom .hlsl compiler that added a few options I've always wanted.  Works great. I'd like to integrate it into visual studio, I was thinking like .masm does through the 'Build Customization' menu.  I've looked over the masm.targets, .xml, and .props files, as well as read everything I can about MSBuild.  But try as I might I've had no luck.

Has anyone on here had any experience with that?  Any tutorials that might explain things in detail?  The best I've come across with my google attempts have been a few MSBlog posts, but none address many of the issues I'm having.  A number of the xml elements in the masm files aren't even listed anywhere in the documention.  I've tried pulling things out and putting things in 1/2 dozen different ways and have had no success.

I'd like to be able to add a custom task to VS, bind it to a file extension, and have a custom property window so I can set the properties of the file.  Any ideas?

Hi all,

I have a solution written in VS 2012 (and I tried 2013, same problem).  It is used by one customer.  I make a change, publish a build, then send it to them as needed.

Today, I made a requested change and tried to publish it.  Instead, it said it failed because no certificates were found causing an error to occure while signing.

I understand the benefit of digitally signed code.  If I were giving this to more than one client or if any one of a number of other situations were the case, I would be happy to go out and buy one.  But none of those apply. 

How to I tell VS to just not worry about it for this project and let me generate the code to make this client happy?

Thanks!

Hi.
I would like to ask how can i custom build rules for pro*c for vs2010 professional?
I have read the article "Quick help on vs2010 custom build rules".. but i dont understand those codes..
I cant compile .pc file to .cpp files.. 
Thanks~

I reinstalled Windows and left user profile folder name as Windows 8.1 it created.

As Windows 8.0/8.1 gets user name from Microsoft Account first name profile field my current user profile folder is "C:\Users\Андрій"

Then as usual I moved my projects to %UserProfile%\Dev\Sources

And now when I try to build any solution that contains NuGet.targets I receive error

1>------ Build started: Project: Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Mobile, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------
1>C:\Users\Андрій\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.nuget\nuget.targets(90,9): error : Не вдалося знайти вказаний шлях.
1>C:\Users\Андрій\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.nuget\nuget.targets(90,9): error MSB3073: The command ""C:\Users\Андрій\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.nuget\nuget.exe" install "C:\Users\Андрій\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\packages.config" -source ""  -RequireConsent -o "C:\Users\Андрій\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\packages"" exited with code 3.

I tried to execute this command in command line

C:\Users\Андр?й>"C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.
nuget\nuget.exe" install "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\
Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\packages.config" -source ""  -
RequireConsent -o "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed
\packages"
Restoring NuGet packages...
To prevent NuGet from downloading packages during build, open the Visual Studio
Options dialog, click on the Package Manager node and uncheck 'Allow NuGet to do
wnload missing packages'.
All packages listed in packages.config are already installed.

And it works

So I tried to execute MSBuild to see what is the exact error

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0>msbuild "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev
\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServ
ices\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Mobile.csproj" /verbosity:diag /property:GLOBAL_USE_
UNICODE=TRUE

And I got this (fragment of output)

Task "Exec" (TaskId:6)
  Task Parameter:Command="..\..\.nuget\nuget.exe" install "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\
  Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileSe
  rvices\packages.config" -source ""  -RequireConsent -o "..\..\packages" (Task
  Id:6)
  Task Parameter:LogStandardErrorAsError=True (TaskId:6)"..\..\.nuget\nuget.exe" install "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-se
  rvices\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\packages.config"
   -source ""  -RequireConsent -o "..\..\packages" (TaskId:6)
C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.nuget\nuget.targ
ets(90,9): error : Illegal characters in path. [C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azu
re-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\Micros
oft.WindowsAzure.Mobile.csproj]
C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\.nuget\nuget.targ
ets(90,9): error MSB3073: The command ""..\..\.nuget\nuget.exe" install "C:\Use
rs\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAz
ure.MobileServices\packages.config" -source ""  -RequireConsent -o "..\..\packa
ges"" exited with code 1. [C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sd
k\Managed\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Mobi
le.csproj]
Done executing task "Exec" -- FAILED. (TaskId:6)
Done building target "RestorePackages" in project "Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Mobil
e.csproj" -- FAILED.: (TargetId:6)
Done Building Project "C:\Users\Андр?й\Dev\Sources\azure-mobile-services\sdk\Ma
naged\src\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.MobileServices\Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Mobile.c
sproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.

Can somebody tell me why does it happen and how to fix this?

Moving solution to another path or renaming user profile folder is not an option! I want real fix!

While creating an .exe file using vc10 and vc11, we were getting some errors like below,

TRACKER : error TRK0002: Failed to execute command: ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\BIN\amd64\Lib.exe" @C:\Users\systpe\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpfe8264f7f29b47d8852292a04f013640.rsp". The operation identifier is not valid.

To solve this we had set Trackfileaccess to false like below,

<TrackFileAccess>false</TrackFileAccess> in our project file and  then that problem solved but we are facing other issue like,

For the first it builds fine but if i delete the .exe and again if try to build without making any changes in file for the second time, its not generating the .exe again and it is just showing as follows even if the .exe is not present,

========== Build: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 1 up-to-date, 0 skipped =========

Is there any way to solve the Tracker error without making TrackFileAccess to false. If so please let me know.

Thanks & Regards,

Devendra P

Hi,

I've got an xsd in a project which needs to be copied to the build directory but VS2012 keeps generating it using the folder structure in the project when I want it to be copied to the debug directory directly e.g. file is in .../Connect/Settings and VS2012 is using the same folder sturcture in the debug directory e.g. .,,/Debug/Connect/Settings/myfile.xsd when I really want .../Debug/myfile.xsd

Is there any way around this other than using a post build event to xcopy the file?

Regards

PhilB

I have been reporting on Issue 2 of this hotfix since October of 2012 and would like to download this as soon as possible.  It appears that I need to open a support ticket however. 

Is there an alternative?

Hello,

I would like to use the Platform Toolset v120 in Visual Studio 2012 to get more C++ 11 support. I've found the "Nov 2012 CTP" Compiler, which supports variadic templates and more. Is it possible to compile with Platform Toolset v120 (not v120 CTP), if yes where do I get the Toolset ?

Thanks

I'm running into two oddities that are really confusing me.  I'm currently migrating our main solution from 2008 to 2010.  We generate solutions here using an internal tool, so it's possible there's something wrong with the project file, but I'm not seeing it.  I'm using VS2010 SP1.  One of our projects contains hundreds of custom build steps with dependency paths.  When building it though, I run into two serious issues:

1)Each build, several files will decide they need to be built when both their Output and their Additional Dependencies have not changed at all.  Strangely, some of them with even more complicated dependencies have no problem whatsoever and don't exhibit this behavior.  I can't see what is causing it to want to build?  Is there any flag I can pass to get a "Builds because of x?"   I've tried removing the dependencies, changing paths in either to ".\pathname.dtp" and "pathname.dtp" and "c:\absolutepath", removing all other configurations, and recently ItemGroup all steps individually, but none of these are giving me a reliable custom step behavior.  What could I be missing?   Also yes, the input files have not been touched or changed and the output files are ending up where expected/declared and have a later timestamp than the input files.

Constantly builds every time:

  <ItemGroup>
    <CustomBuild Include="cdc\dtp\admdtypes.dtpinc">
      <AdditionalInputs Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">
      </AdditionalInputs>
      <Outputs Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">d:\tras\GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admdtypes.h</Outputs>
      <Message Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">DTPHeaderGenerator cdc\dtp\admdtypes.dtpinc GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admdtypes.h -e</Message>
      <Command Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">DTPHeaderGenerator cdc\dtp\admdtypes.dtpinc GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admdtypes.h -e</Command>
      <ExcludedFromBuild Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Xbox 360'">True</ExcludedFromBuild>
    </CustomBuild>
  </ItemGroup>

Also does (Non-simplified):

  <ItemGroup>
    <CustomBuild Include="cdc\dtp\admd.dtp">
      <AdditionalInputs Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">.\cdc\dtp\admdtypes.dtpinc;.\cdc\dtp\zoneitemref.dtpinc;.\runtime\cdcSys\types.h;.\cdcGameConfig.xml;.\code\dtp\admd.dtp;;.\cdc\runtime\cdcSys\Types.h;</AdditionalInputs>
      <Outputs Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admd.h</Outputs>
      <Message Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">DTPHeaderGenerator cdc\dtp\admd.dtp GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admd.h -e</Message>
      <Command Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Win32'">rem Incredibuild_AllowRemote
DTPHeaderGenerator cdc\dtp\admd.dtp GeneratedData\GameOutput\win32_release\cdc\dtp\admd.h -e</Command>
      <ExcludedFromBuild Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='win32_release|Xbox 360'">True</ExcludedFromBuild>
    </CustomBuild>
  </ItemGroup>

2)Cancel build might as well not work.  If I hit build, wait 30 seconds and then hit Cancel Build, Visual Studio will completely lock up for up to ten minutes.  Looking, it has an MSBuild sub-process that keeps on churning out custom build calls as if it was never told to cancel.  Killing this works, but I want to know why cancel build won't.  Is there something wrong with custom steps that it doesn't know how to stop building them?  This doesn't happen with our projects with just ClCompile and CLInclude steps.  Does MSBuild not know how to stop building custom build steps?  Is it just creating a giant batch that it can't kill mid-way?  And yes, problem 1 happens even if I don't hit cancel, but wait for the whole project to build and then try what should be a no-op build afterwards.

Could really use some insight here.  What am I missing on desired input that is causing this behavior?

Hi, I hope this is the correct forum, for the life of me I could not find any asp.net / web project specific forums.

Anyway, I have just opened a 2010 dev studio web project in dev studio 2013, were we have 2 Web Deployment Projects. (ie .wdproj). Both have the message (incompatible) and then underneath "The application is not installed"...

Does anyone know what this means, and how to get around this? Are these "projects" supported? A lot of searching gave my nothing but conflicting answers (to 2012 related questions)

Thanks in advance for any help

Best regards, Peter

Is there a tool for (quickly!) modifying vcxproj files outside of MSVC2010? The Build Configuration editor in MSVC2010 is hopelessly broken, it won't allow me to remove configurations at all, it just does nothing and doesn't tell me why. The projects build fine, but they have many configs that are deprecated and I would like to remove. I tried using MSVC2012 to do this but it doesn't appear to do it correctly, the symptom of which is that when I next *add* a Build Configuration, instead of the name I gave it appearing I get back one of the old ones I deleted... So I don't trust that to be working correctly.

Obviously they are XML so could be hand edited, but they are thousands of lines long (mostly because of all the configs that I can't remove ironically!), and I have many that need fixing up.

I considered premake, but (a) I am using Qt and the support for that is apparently experimental, and (b) that is still a large investment of time to set up and I would prefer something quick!

Hi, 

I'm on a project at the moment which uses Visual Studio 2008, Subversion, Cruise Control and MSBuild to manage our code. 

My issue is though that the way the MSBuild is currently set up mean if I do a temporary check in of incomplete code, the scheduled build runs and breaks. 

I'd like to know what changes I need to make to the msbuild configuration file in my solution in order to only build the projects within my solution with a configuration of Release and to ignore those set as Debug. 

Thanks in advance.

Please see .msbuild file below:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"><PropertyGroup>  <!-- Application details --><ProjectName>FormAssemblies</ProjectName><!-- SubVersion Username/Password --><SvnUser>cruise.ctrl</SvnUser><SvnPassword>svn_password</SvnPassword><!-- Set directories for build --><SvnToolpath>C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin\svn.exe</SvnToolpath><SourceDirectory>D:\CI\src\eforms\Templates</SourceDirectory><ArtifactDirectory>D:\CI\Templates\Artifacts</ArtifactDirectory><OutputDirectory>D:\CI\Output\FormAssemblies</OutputDirectory><SharedLibDir>D:\CI\src\eforms\SharedLibs</SharedLibDir><DependenciesDirectory>D:\CI\Templates\Dependencies</DependenciesDirectory><FxCopPath>C:\Program Files\Microsoft FxCop 1.36</FxCopPath><NUnitPath>C:\Program Files\NUnit 2.5\bin\net-2.0</NUnitPath><NUnitCmd>$(NUnitPath)nunit-console.exe</NUnitCmd><NUnitFile>msbuild-nunit-results.xml</NUnitFile>  <LastTestRunSucceededFile>LastTestRunSucceeded</LastTestRunSucceededFile><!-- Set configuration of the build --><BuildConfig>Release</BuildConfig><CompilerConfig>false</CompilerConfig><!-- set target framework --><TargetFrameworkVersion>v3.5</TargetFrameworkVersion><!-- set aspnet_merge path --><MSBuildExtensionPath>C:\Program Files\MSBuild</MSBuildExtensionPath></PropertyGroup><Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" /><!-- Excluded files --><ItemGroup><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.suo" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.build" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.msbuild" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\database\**" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.zip" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.webinfo" /><DefaultExclude Include="$(OutputDirectory)\*.user" /></ItemGroup><ItemGroup><Compile Include="$(OutputDirectory)\**\*.*" /> </ItemGroup><!-- Files to be zipped --><ItemGroup><ZipFiles Include="$(OutputDirectory)\**\*.*" Exclude="@(DefaultExclude)" /></ItemGroup><!-- 
		This should try and resolve dependencies
		See IK for more info
	--><ItemGroup><ClinicalAppsPathFiles Include="$(SourceDirectory)..\**\*.dll" /> </ItemGroup><Target Name="BeforeResolveReferences">   <RemoveDuplicates Inputs="@(ClinicalAppsPathFiles->'%(RootDir)%(Directory)')"> <Output TaskParameter="Filtered" ItemName="ClinicalAppsSearchPath" />   </RemoveDuplicates>     <CreateProperty Value="@(ClinicalAppsSearchPath);$(AssemblySearchPaths)">     <Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="AssemblySearchPaths" />   </CreateProperty> </Target><!--*****************************************************************************
	// Build Process<Target Name="Release" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Init;Core;Application;BuildTests;RunTests;PostClean;" />
	*****************************************************************************  --><Target Name="Release" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Init;Core;PostClean;" /><Target Name="Clean"><!-- Remove the older build folder --><Message Text="Removing the last build folder and dependencies"/><RemoveDir Directories="$(OutputDirectory)" /><RemoveDir Directories="$(DependenciesDirectory)" /><Message Text="Doing a cleanup on the src folder" /></Target><Target Name="Init"><!-- Create the directory if not already existing --><Message Text="Create the directory if not already in existence"/><MakeDir Directories = "$(OutputDirectory)" Condition = "!Exists('$(OutputDirectory)')" /><MakeDir Directories = "$(DependenciesDirectory)" Condition = "!Exists('$(DependenciesDirectory)')" /><MakeDir Directories = "$(SharedLibDir)" Condition = "!Exists('$(SourceDirectory)')" />  <Message Text="Updating $(SourceDirectory) from SVN"/><SvnUpdate LocalPath="$(SourceDirectory)" ToolPath="$(ToolPath)" Username="$(SvnUser)" Password="$(SvnPassword)" /><Message Text="Updating $(SharedLibDir) from SVN"/><SvnUpdate LocalPath="$(SharedLibDir)" ToolPath="$(ToolPath)" Username="$(SvnUser)" Password="$(SvnPassword)" />				 </Target><Target Name="Core" DependsOnTargets="Init"><Message Text="Builds the solutions files and creates all assemblies for application"/>	<MSBuild Projects="$(SourceDirectory)\Templates.sln" Targets="ReBuild" Properties="Configuration=$(BuildConfig)" ><Output ItemName="Outputs" TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" /></MSBuild><Copy SourceFiles="@(Outputs)" DestinationFolder="$(DependenciesDirectory)"/><Message Text="Compiles all the source files for deployment"/><Copy SourceFiles="@(Outputs)"DestinationFolder="$(OutputDirectory)"/></Target><Target Name="PostClean"><!-- Remove the older build folder --><Message Text="Removing the last build folder and dependencies"/><RemoveDir Directories="$(DependenciesDirectory)" /><Message Text="Doing a cleanup on the src folder" /></Target></Project>

Hi,

I am setting up the build process in one of my projects and team asked me to implement build versioning as well as part of MSBuild automated build.

I have created the buidl definition and used the default template but not clear on what exactly build versioning and how do I implement with a simple approach in VS/TFS 2012.

the versioning format identified was <Major.Minor.Rev.Build> 

the last digit in the above format i.e. Build number should keep increment with each time build definition successfully complete the build of the project.

Please suggest how do i do this in a simple manner and also explain me the concept of versioning little detail if possible

Praka

Prakash

Before I proceed to compiling a library using MinGW, I want to know if it is possible to link the library using MSBuild?

(The library that I specifically want to link is ffmpeg.)

I have moved to a new computer using Windows 8.  Installed Visual studio 2010 and applied updates.  The first several publishes worked fine.  Now all publishes fails with error: Unable to finish updating resource for bin\Debug\app.publish\setup.exe with error 8007005.  One time I deleted the obj files and it worked once but now that does not work any longer. I have not been able to find a fix.  Can anyone please provide help.

Thanks in advance.