Visual Studio 2012 build hangs - c++

Question

As recently as the last few days, a project I'm working on in MSVS2012 has begun hanging on build. I've taken steps trying to log what VS is doing as in the following link : How to Troubleshoot Visual Studio 2012 Hangs/Lockups but have not been able to find any "errors" or anything that "fails" to load. The build will finish, but it now takes several minutes as opposed to a few seconds. Anytime I attempt to cancel the build, I get a generic message about how the system is waiting on "GenerateDeps" to finish.
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\BuildCustomizations\CUDA 6.0.targets(402,9): warning MSB4220: Waiting for the currently executing task "GenerateDeps" to cancel.
EDIT
Here's some additional verbose/diagnostic output. This seems to be where VS is lagging...
Input file "GPU RKF45 (Variable Step Size).cu" is newer than output file "x64\Debug\GPU RKF45 (Variable Step Size).cu.deps".
1>Using "GenerateDeps" task from assembly "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V110\BuildCustomizations\Nvda.Build.CudaTasks.v6.0.dll".
1>Task "GenerateDeps" (TaskId:23)
1> Task Parameter:
1> AdditionalIncludeDirs=
1> C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v6.0\include
1> C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v6.0\bin
1> C:\Program Files\NVIDIA GPU Computing Toolkit\CUDA\v6.0\include
1> . (TaskId:23)
1> Task Parameter:ForcedIncludeFiles=cuda_runtime.h (TaskId:23)
1> Task Parameter:
1> PreprocessorDefinitions=
1> __CUDACC__
1> _MBCS (TaskId:23)
1> Task Parameter:SourceFile=C:\Users\Karsten Chu\New Google Drive\Research\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\Dynamic Parallelism Test\Dynamic Parallelism Test\GPU RKF45 (Variable Step Size).cu (TaskId:23)
1> Command: (TaskId:23)
1> The "GenerateDeps" task is using "cl.exe" from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin\x86_amd64\cl.exe". (TaskId:23)

Answer 1

I have had problems with hanging builds in VS some long time ago and I traced back the root cause to be always resource related. Such as a slow processor (yes, it matters when you compile!), or not enough memory. The only solution that worked for me was always a full rebuild (clean) and leave the computer alone while it builds. This might or might not help you, if you share more information someone might have a deeper insight.

Answer 2

I have frequently been able to recover Visual Studio 2012 from hanging when a build fails with the message "Waiting for the currently executing task "CL" to cancel." by ending all of the "cl" processes. For example, open up the Windows task manager and find all the processes named "cl.exe" (which is the MSVC compiler) and end process on them. Visual Studio resumes operation shortly thereafter.
If there are additional/custom build tasks, there may be other processes running. For example, if a custom build event launches an executable, that executable process may need to be killed as well.

Answer 3

I found vc12 build will appear to hang if you make an error in project properties such that an output folder is invalid.
eg want to set OutputDirectory to something but due a typo when editing the property it resolves to an invalid path.
Instead of giving an invalid path error the build appears to hang.
I say appears to hang because what actually happens is does nothing for a long time during which you cannot cancel the build of exit DevStudio.
Eventually (several minutes) it gives an error but that time is so long it looks like a hang.

Answer 4

I had to replace cl.exe /E option to /P within Nvda.Build.CudaTasks.vX.Y.dll files to evade the problem. There wasn't the problem few days ago so I'm not sure at all why the problem has surfaced.