Is there a way to see what the CSC (or VBC) parameters are, when building an application using the Visual Studio?
Visual Studio calls CSC.exe/VBC.exe behind the scenes. I want to know if there is a way to see that call.
I need this info to replicate the equivalent Build script using the command line.
I set the different levels of verbosity for the build, still I do not see any CSC.EXE call in the output window.
I'm really surprised why Microsoft did not put an easy way to see the underlying CSC command.
AJ if I go through your steps I get:
I do not see any reference to CSC
OK here is how I resolved this:
First I went to tools and options and set the verbosity to detail. (After this point still build output was empty).
Then I got Service pack for VS2010.
I also had similar issue for Visual Studio 2012 I had to get "update 4" to see the logs and CSC.EXE ion the output.
I think what you're looking for can be set up in your VS environment options. Under the Tools menu, select "Options," then "Projects and Solutions." Make sure "Show Output window when build starts" is checked.
Then, under "Projects and Solutions," select "Build and Run" and change the level of "MSBuild project build output verbosity." I changed it to "Detailed" as an experiment, but you can fiddle with the levels to get what you want.
Then, when you build/rebuild your solution, the easiest thing to do is to place your cursor in the build output window and search for "csc" (or "vbc" for VB). You should be able to see the entire command line call to the compiler.
EDIT
To answer your comment, change the "Show output from" drop-down option at the top of the output window from "Debug" to "Build" and do a build/rebuild without running the application in debug mode.
In my work, I usually use Debug mode to run my projects and I also want to debug them as needed. Sometimes, I also want to deploy one project DLL to production. I must switch from Debug to Release mode on my solution and build it again. After completing, I re-switch from Release to Debug mode to come back my work.
I need the fastest way or have a option to build Release on my selected project while my solution is still in Debug mode.
I'm using VS 2010 & C#.
Not sure if there is a direct shortcut for something like that. But you can do:
Alt + B , O, R, Enter
F6
Alt + B, O, D, Enter
It is actually opening options from the menu as under:
Alt + B -> Build Menu
O -> Configuration Manager
R -> To Select Release Mode
Enter -> To close the Configuration Manager
F6 -> Build
Alt + B -> Build Menu
O -> Configuration Manager
D -> To Select Debug Mode
Enter -> To close the Configuration Manager
You could add a Tools menu entry to Visual Studio using devenv.exe with the command line params of '$(SolutionDir)$(SolutionFileName) /build Release' in the arguments field to send in the currently open solution and configuration mode as parameters to a new command line instance of devenv.exe. This can be done via the Tools menu, External Tools item inside of Visual Studio. This would not require you to change the build configuration in the open solution and you could assign a menu shortcut key to the item.
IE:
devenv c:\temp\solution.sln /build Release
You may wish to also take a look at the other devenv paramters by doing a 'devenv /?' at the prompt. Also, if you have the solution open in Visual Studio, make sure your source files are saved before issuing the build.
When I press F5 in Visual Studio 2010, my code does not compile anymore. Instead, it running the most recent compiled code. To compile the code, I have to right click on the program and choose Build and then run
How do I get my program to compile on each run?
It is a setting in Visual Studio. Opening the settings dialog, there should be a category "Projects and Solutions" (sorry, I use the German version - not quite sure what the English labels are). In there's another section "Build and Run". The second combo box from the top allows you to adjust what happens when running projects that have been modified.
Another option is the solution properties. There are settings in there where you can configure which project within the solution should be compiled. To get there, right-click the solution, select "Properties", there select "configuration" (?). There's a check box for each project in a list that you need to check to have the project built.
Use F6 to build the whole solution, and Shift-F6 to build your current project
Tools -> Options -> Projects & Solutions -> Build and Run
"On Run, when projects are out of date:"
Select "Always Build"
That's it, had it myself, extremely annoying.
I've right clicked the project in Visual Studio and selected properties. Then I changed the Build configuration to Release. But even after hitting Control+Shift+B to build my library, I still find the /Release/ folder empty.
If I close the properties window and re open it, I see the option has switched back to Active(debug)
What am I missing?
You haven't actually changed to make the Release configuration active - you've just gone to the properties for the Release configuration.
The "active configuration" is normally in a toolbar just under the main menu - look for "Debug" there and change it to "Release" like this:
Or go to "Build > Configuration Manager" and change the active release there.
Open your Output Window of Visual Studio and after successful build ensure that your project's DLL is created in Release folder, with actual complete path provided, where you are checking for binary presence.
If it's ok, check if your Console application doesn't have any post build event in it, which simply moves the binaries of DLL projects.
If it's not, try to not use Control+Shift+B combination, but simply make a RightCLick DLL project and make it Rebuild.
Hope this helps.
A C# desktop application (on the Visual Studio Express edition) worked, but then it didn't work 5 seconds later.
I tried the following:
Ensure debug configuration, debug flag, and full debug information are set on all assemblies.
Delete all bin and obj folders and all DLL files related to the project from my entire machine.
Recreate projects causing the problem from scratch.
Reboot.
I have two Windows Forms projects in the solution. One of them loads the debug information, one doesn't. They both refer to the assembly I'm trying to get debug information on in exactly the same way in the project file. Any ideas?
I want to add here, mostly for myself when I come back to review this question, that symbols are not loaded until the assembly is loaded, and the assembly is not loaded until it is needed. If the breakpoint is in a library that is only used in one function in your main assembly, the symbols will not be loaded (and it will show the breakpoint as not being hit) until that function is called.
Start debugging, as soon as you've arrived at a breakpoint or used Debug > Break All, use Debug > Windows > Modules. You'll see a list of all the assemblies that are loaded into the process. Locate the one you want to get debug info for. Right-click it and select Symbol Load Information. You'll get a dialog that lists all the directories where it looked for the .pdb file for the assembly. Verify that list against the actual .pdb location. Make sure it doesn't find an old one.
In normal projects, the assembly and its .pdb file should always have been copied by the IDE into the same folder as your .exe, i.e. the bin\Debug folder of your project. Make sure you remove one from the GAC if you've been playing with it.
Check to make sure that you are not in release but in Debug.
When in debug:
First try rebuilding your project by right mouse click the project > Rebuild
If that doesn't work, try a clean of the project (right mouse click on the project > clean)
If that didn't work check this:
Right mouse click your project
Select [Properties]
Select the [Build] tab
Make sure [Define DEBUG constant] and [Define TRACE constant] are checked
Make sure [Optimize Code] is unchecked
Click the [Advanced] button at the bottom of the Build tabpage
Make sure that [Debug Info:] is set to [full]
Click [OK] and rebuild the project ;-)
(step 7 generates the .pdb files, these are the debugging symbols)
Uncheck the "Enable Just My Code" option in the
Tools/Options/Debugging/General
Just something simple to try - you may have tried it already.
Right click the Solution in solution explorer, click "clean solution", this deletes all the compiled and temporary files associated with a solution.
Do a rebuild of the solution and try to debug again.
I've also had troubles with breakpoints multiple projects in a solution - some compiled as x86, some as x64.
The selected answer led me to fix my problem. But I need to do a few things more:
Even with "Debug" selected in the dropdown:
And in the project Properties > Build:
The Visual Studio was not loading symbols to a specific project. So in that dropdown I select "Configuration Manager" and saw that the settings to my web project was incorrect:
Then I set that to "Debug" and it started to generate the .pdb file.
BUT I need to manually copy the PDB and DLL and put in the folder that VS was looking (here is where the selected answer helped me):
Sometimes, even though it gives you this error, the Breakpoint still gets hit, so just ignore the error.
This happens fairly often in the Views of an MVC web app, i.e. .cshtml.
I was able to fix the error by simply setting the option in the 'Attach to Process' to 'Automatically determine the type of code to debug' option as shown in the attached screenshot.
Simply follow the steps below:
Go to Debug from the menu bar
Click on Attach to Process
Near the Attach to option, click on the Select button
The Select Code Type window will appear
Now select the option Automatically determine the type of code to debug and click the OK button.
Debug > Windows > Modules to see what modules were being loaded put me in the right direction.
In my case IIS Express seemed to be loading a different DLL from the temporary ASP.NET files.
The solution?
Browse to C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\vs
Delete everything in this directory!
Check if your .pbd file is missing in your bin/Debug folder. If it is then go to "Properties" of your project, selected "Build" and then "Advanced" at the bottom. Choose "full" under "Debug info" in the new window that appeared. This was my issue and solved it for me.
In my case "Optimize Code" was checked in my project properties. This caused VS to see my assembly as "not my code", and in turn, it did not load symbols for it.
The solution was to uncheck this.
Try running visual studio as an administrator within windows.
You need to enable "Generate debug info" in compiler settings
I tried everything mentioned above, but nothing worked.
[Clean solution, and check for PDB files etc.]
Even publishing the same solution did not resolve the issue.
Then I went to back to what I usually do to resolve (fool this stubborn Visual Studio)
All I did was to make a deliberate change in code and publish the solution.
Then I reverted the change and published again.
Voila [PDB files rid of evil spirits].. Not a smart resolution, but this did work.. :-|
We found the cause of our problem. This code was using the "CodeBehind" attribute in the Page directive of the .aspx file instead of the "CodeFile" attribute (ASP.NET 2.0 and beyond). After days of desperation, a simple search and replace solved the problem.
Option "Start debugging, Debug + Windows + Modules" does not exist in Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2013 edition.
Unchecking "Use Managed Compatibility Mode" in Tools Options Debugging fixes this.
Webapplications (IIS Express) only:
Rightclick IIS Express Tray and close the IIS.
Clean Solution
Clean solution and Rebuild
Check the configuration is set to Debug
Make sure that the PDB file is in the Debug folder it self
From Debug menu click Enable All Break points
Make sure you're in Debug and not is release by choosing debug in the dropdown menu like you can see in the picture below.
Then, try cleaning your project by clicking the right button in your mouse on the solution in the solution explorer window and choosing Clean solution.
Then rebuild your solution by clicking the right button in your mouse on the solution in the solution explorer window and choose Rebuild solution
Check are the following two setting the same in Visual Studio:
Right click test project, go to Properties, Build tab, and look at Platform target
Mine are all set to "Any CPU" so x64
On the Main Menu bar, go to Test, Test Settings, Default Processor Architecture
Mine was set to X86
Changing this to X64 to match above setting made the built in Visual Studio menu “Debug Test(s)” work and hit breakpoints that were previously ignored with the message “The breakpoint will not currently be hit. No symbols have been loaded for this document”.
Update:
For Visual Studio 2019 the menus have been moved around a bit:
I also had the same issue what I rebuild the whole solution (including refereced projects) in x86( or x64)
Even though I set all of my projects to x86 from Configuration Manager (Build->ConfigManager) some of my projects were not set to x86.
So Just to make sure right click on the project and follow
project -> properties -> Debug Tab, verify Configuration and Platform.
The .dll where I want to stop debugger and the associated .pdb files where copied near the .exe file. Those files had an older date so I thought they weren't updated in the runtime. I manually deleted them, Visual Studio create another pair AND put this new pair near the .exe. Now the breakpoint works!
Maybe Visual Studio cannot copy and REPLACE existing files (.dll and .pdb) near the .exe since there are another there. So if I deleted manually then VS could create new one near .exe.
I think that the root cause of the problem is that the Visual Studio use another file in runtime, no the file from the project, with the stop.
Instead of doing all these things just Close and reopen
Project Properties (then select your build config) > Build Tab > Advanced... > Debug Info (dropdown)
Set to 'all' or 'pdb-only' then rebuild
This took me a while tried other options above and for some strange reason debugging stopped working.
Tool -> Options -> Debugging -> General -> (untick) "Require source files to exactly match the original version" option
I was integrating a C# application with a static library using VS10 - which I'm new to. I wrote a managed code dll to interface them. I could set breakpoints everywhere but the static lib. I got the message described above - no symbols have been loaded for this document. I tried many of the suggestions above. I could see that the symbols weren't being loaded. I finally noticed a check box Configuration Debug, Enable unmanaged code debugging. That allowed me to set breakpoints in the static lib functions.
In my case, I was compiling a class library (DLL). No modules seem to be loaded in Debug -> Modules, so I couldn't even load the symbols manually.
My solution was to add this line to my code:
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Launch();
Once this code is reached, an exception is triggered and .NET Framework shows a dialog box asking which Visual Studio (i.e. new instance of VS 2008, new instance of VS 2013, etc) you want to use to debug the program. You can choose the existing instance of VS with your project loaded. This will attach the process to your VS session and load all symbols, and now you can debug your project.
Of course, the compilation has to be done using the Debug configuration, not Release.
For an ASP.Net application, check the properties of the site, ASP.NET tab. Ensure that the correct ASP.NET version is selected.
I think the source if this error is, the debug symbols have a hard time surfacing to the solution after building for release.
I tried all the other answers -- generally, regenerating .pdb symbols or checking their location, cleaning and rebuilding project, ensuring active configuration is not Release etc.
What eventually worked for me is right-clicking on the project in solution explorer > Debug > Start new instance.
After trying a bunch of these, the thing that ultimately worked for me was this:
In Debug > Options > General, uncheck Enable Edit and Continue.
this happened to me after copy paste another webservice asmx file into an existing webservice, resulting in the same error when trying to debug the recently added service, to be able to debug I had to start without debug, then attach to the process. its weird but its the only way i found to be able to debug.