Sometimes when I compile C++ code using nmake, the build process gets stuck at the manifest tool mt.exe (see the bottom of this screenshot - http://i.stack.imgur.com/pgyzT.png). It just never finishes, but if I cancel the build process and start again, it may run past the last point but get stuck again at another seemingly random mt.exe process. This makes building big software very cumbersome, as I need to "monitor" the build process to know when to cancel and start again from the beginning.
I'm clueless as to what could be the reason to this behavior. Has anybody encountered this problem before?
Edit: I'm using Windows 8 x64, the mt.exe comes from Windows SDK 6.0A.
I had similar problems with msbuild getting stuck at random points. Never found out what caused it, but a workaround that worked for me was to disable parallel building of projects.
Trying disabling your anti-virus on-demand scanning when building. I have seen some anti-virus software block access to a file using mt.exe, though usually you get an error instead of a hang.
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Every time I try to run my code, I am having this error: "Csc.exe" exited with code - 255.
I removed and re-installed Visual Studio 2015 and it did not help.
Does csc.exe succeed with different code?
It is possible that you’ve found a bug in the compiler that causes it to crash when trying to compile your particular program. To see if this is the case, create a new “Console App” project with Visual Studio (VS) and see if the default app in the template compiles and runs. If that works, then your code might be triggering a csc.exe crash. If that doesn’t work, your VS install might be completely broken in which case I would recommend uninstalling and reinstalling VS (but you already tried that). If you cannot get VS to run even simple programs on your computer, you’ll need to try to track down why it is crashing and see if it is something you can manually fix. If your system is messed up enough and it is not worth tracking a fix down, you might consider reinstalling Windows (using the “Reset” feature).
Another thing to try is running your code on another computer with VS installed. That can help determine if the issue is your code triggering a compiler error versus your computer being messed up.
If csc.exe only crashes for your particular code, then that is a bug in csc.exe. If there is an issue with your code, csc.exe should generate a nice error explaining the issue with your code instead of crashing.
It is also possible that your code is valid but a compiler bug causes csc.exe to crash. An example of this (with VS 2017 and csharp7) is roslyn#19182. If this is the case, you might try using the VS feedback (frowny face/feedback button in the upper right hand corner) feature to report the issue so that the VS developers know about it. Also, you might be able to poke your code around until suddenly VS starts running successfully. If this is the issue, it might be hard to guess why csc.exe is crashing, but, if you can, try to isolate the issue. For example, if csc.exe was running fine before you made some changes to your code, look at the changes you made and see if undoing them results in csc.exe running successfully again. Then try to make a new, minimal repro which causes csc.exe to crash and send that as feedback using VS’s feedback mechanism or by reporting a bug against the roslyn project. You might also ask a new question here about why that particular code causes csc.exe to crash. With particular code, people might be able to guess why csc.exe can’t handle it and suggest workarounds to use while waiting for the VS team to release a fix.
As it is, your question does not have enough information to guess why csc.exe was crashing for you. Hopefully this answer provides some guidance on what steps you should take if you ever end up in such a situation.
I have the following bug in a program:
An MDI MFC program closes silently on Windows 7 (terminates the process without prompting to save changes and without displaying any "crash" dialog) when the user performs this operation : Click a context menu item.
But this happens only on that PC, at least, for the moment. No other PC has encountered that problem. However the bug can always be reproduced following the same steps but only on that PC.
I want to know the reason but probably the customer won't allow me to install many programs to debug, so I need to be able to log when the program terminates, or print the stack in Release version but I'm quite lost.
I had faced a similar bug before and eventually I fixed it logging line by line and changing the problematic part, but I guess there are much better ways to find bug reasons than this.
I have tried on my development PC to create minidumps on Release mode but if there is no exception thrown on that PC, (I haven't confirmed that yet, though...) maybe it's pointless.
Also used an available class on codeproject (Stackwalker) but I don't manage to print all the function calls. Only on simple console programs, but not on MDI or even SDI.
Any ideas on how to find out the reason? Thanks in advance.
I have a mixed managed and unmanaged C++ application that's working quite well. I'm using Visual Studio 2013 to compile it, and all is well. Recently I upgraded my computer to Windows 10, and now it's not working.
If I get the executable compiled on Windows 8, it runs properly on Windows 10. It only fails if I compile it on Windows 10.
The failure is peculiar as well. I run the EXE and nothing happens. When I run it from Visual Studio it doesn't even reach the first line of main. Breakpoints are all marked as 'disabled'. When I break the running process the debugger shows an empty stack trace.
UPDATE: Hunch about DLL loading turned into a fact:
I used Process Explorer and I see the process has two threads. The one starting at !CorExeMain is stuck at !LdrLoadDll, but I can't tell which DLL that is.
OK, found the DLL that causes the problem. I've created a C++/CLI console application, used that DLL and got the same behavior. The DLL is part of the application (and part of the VS solution). It's a native C++ DLL, compiled with the same compiler and settings. This DLL references other DLLs unfortunately.
This is a generic problem called "LoaderLock". The operating system makes very strong guarantees when it calls the DllMain() entrypoint of a DLL. Strictly in loading order, they never run at the same time. There is a lock in the OS loader that ensures these promises are kept.
And a lock always has the potential to cause deadlock. It will happen when the DllMain() entrypoint does something unwise like loading the DLL itself with LoadLibrary(). Or call a function that requires the OS to have a DLL already loaded. Can't work, its DllMain() entrypoint can't be called because the loader lock is held. The program will freeze. C++/CLI apps are prone to this problem, lots of stuff tends to happen in DllMain(). Indirectly, you can't see it in your code.
You can only see it with the debugger. You must change its flavor, Project > Properties > Debugging > Debugger Type, change it from "Auto" to "Mixed". You'll now also see the unmanaged code that is running including the OS loader functions, name starts with "Ldr". Be sure to enable the Microsoft Symbol Server with Tools > Options > Debugging > Symbols. And be sure to use the Debug > Windows > Threads debugging window as well, the truly tricky loader deadlocks that don't repeat well or appear to be affected by the OS version are caused by another thread loading a DLL.
Diagnosing and fixing it can be difficult, be sure to reserve the time you need to dig in. If you can't make heads or tails of the stack traces then post them in your question.
Before taking #Hans Passant advice I carefully combed through the code, dumpbin /dependentsed the executables and DLLs and made sure there were no custom DllMains. There were none. DLLs were indeed loaded with LoadLibrary, but that was happening long after the loading DLLs were loaded.
So I took #Hans Passant advice. Set up the debugger properly and checked the state of the process during the deadlock. One of the threads was stuck in LdrLoadDll.
It took a little tinkering to find the name of the DLL that was passed to LdrLoadDll. It was AVGHOOK.DLL .
I disabled AVG, and lo and behold - everything is back to normal.
This is the second time AVG is messing with me. The previous time I nearly replaced a printer until I figured out all the PCL errors disappeared when I disabled AVG. I think I'm not going to use it any more.
I have put our comment ping pong into a full text:
#1:
As you found out, that your application did not load, you needed to check if applications on your system (W10, VS2013) run at all.
Reply: A test console app is running fine.
#2:
If your application doesn't run, build up a similar application and step-by-step put code of your app into the new app until it fails.
If the failure is causes by a DLL (which cannot be loaded, as it was in your case), remove DLLs from your app until it works. Alternatively build a dummy console app, include DLL #1 and use some functions of that DLL. Compile, run, check. Go on until DLL #n...
Reply: faulty DLL was found.
#3:
Reference only this DLL in the test app to ensure it's this DLL only and not a combination of DLLs.
Is it a managed DLL or a native C++ DLL?
If the faulty DLL is from a foreign source: bad luck. Ask the developer for support.
If it's your own: Did you compile the faulty DLL on W10+VS2013, too, or did you copy it from your previous system? I suggest you compile this DLL again on the new system.
Reply: it's a native C++ DLL, which is part of the solution and is compiled together with the main app.
This DLL references other DLLs unfortunately.
#4:
Create a new console app, that references not your faulty application DLL, but the DLLs which are referenced by YOUR DLL. Omit the intermediate step to detect if the failure comes from the other DLLs.
The general procedure is: Split up faulty code to find out out which part is causing trouble. Romans already knew this 2000 years ago: Divide et impera ;-) Though they did it in a different context...
We had the exact same problem here during several weeks ! And we finally found a solution !
In our case, it was the anti-virus Avast which was corrupting the generated .exe !
The solution was to simply disable all agents while generating the release !
If you use another anti-virus, try to disable it.
I've completed work on a project that is all ready to go except for one problem : Upon installation, it fails to run on a fresh system (that is, one that has never been updated, had anything installed to it, or anything else).
The system installs by a Microsoft Setup and Deployment project, and successfully downloads .Net Framework 4.5 but it still fails to run, and the error is completely useless.
The program is written on the .Net 4.5 framework, and is written in C#/WPF/XAML. Other than needing .Net 4.5, what other prerequisites should I be checking for/downloading to the target system?
When I say "It fails to run", what I mean is that the program does not launch. The user double-clicks the shortcut, and they get a message box that says
PROGRAM has stopped working.
A problem has caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available
Also; The program works perfectly fine on other systems, it's just it seems systems fresh out of the box it fails on (in the manner as noted above).
The short answer is that you need to identify the software your program uses that is not part of the .NET Framework. That might include Crystal Reports, some SQL components, any third party NET controls, COM components. Typically the first cut is Microsoft vs 3rd party because 3rd party software will not be on someone's random system. After that, see what Microsoft components you might be using that are separate redistributables.
It may be useful to have a message box as the first thing your program does (as a test). If it's all .NET and it starts, then probably most of the NET references are there. If it doesn't start you are probably missing a referenced assembly. If it crashes later, then all you need is some diagnostic or trace data (and error handling) to see if you trying to do something like create a COM object that hasn't been installed.
However if it's not a dependency issue then it could be an architecture issue if you have an AnyCpu build and trying to call a Dll with the wrong bitness, and not designing for 64-bit and 32-bit systems. Or if you're doing something really unusual, Data Execution Prevention might be preventing the program from running - I think you'll see that message in those cases. I also suspect that some AntiVirus programs will step in and cause this error if they see the code doing something prohibited.
I have a GCC 3.4.3 toolchain built for ARM (arm-elf) here in my Windows 7 (64bits) setup. We use this to build our software product to a specific hardware.
Recently, we have been experiencing some problems with this particular toolchain.
First, when we try to call arm-elf-gcc to build each source file (there are lots of them), it complained about it not being able to allocate enough heap.
Then, I thought it was some problem with the outdated cygwin DLL distributed by the hardware vendor. So I replaced it with a more recent version (1.7.35). The problem stopped and the build does go ok but now it is incredibly SLOW (it took about 40s to build a single .c source file).
Does anyone has experienced this problem before? How can I debug and fix it?
Thanks in advance.
Sounds like you have had a similar problem to me and might be worth trying this. When i first encountered this, I had to install cygserver and then run this (make sure you right click admin):
Previous solution
However, the problem resumed and I simultaneously couldn't install/uninstall some problems. Eventually I resolved this by terminating SearchIndexer.exe in Task Manager. Indeed, I have gone in to Control Panel / Searach Indexing and pulled it back from doing any indexing. My installation taking 1hr took 3 more seconds. The change to Cygwin was instantaneous.
Cygwin is now flying!
I've had an issue with slow execution of builds for a while on cygwin, using make and a proprietary compiler that "isn't gcc, honest...", but has very similar error returns.
I was forced to update yesterday and ran into the issue of rebaseall simply failing to execute. This forced me to dig into other things and I found a report that Trusteer Rapport/End Point Protection has been known to cause issues with rebaseall,and slow response times. So I removed it. This fixed the rebaseall, but has also massively increased the speed of my build. Worth checking to see if you have it installed, try removing it. AV packages in general are reputed to interfere and may be the cause.