I have a Visual Studio solution with set After-build commands. Those commands copy all files from the bin/Debug folder to the SOLUTION/Build/Debug folder.
Now I am trying to run debug from that SOLUTION/Build/Debug folder. Is that possible?
I have found in the Settings -> Debug -> Start External ... option, but this option won't accept a relative path to the executable (we need it relative as multiple developers are working on the project).
I have found a way how to do this.
First is needed to set in project properties Debug > Start External and Debug > Working directory to absolute paths. Then edit manually project file project.csproj.user and update it like this:
<StartAction>Program</StartAction>
<StartProgram>$(SolutionDir)Build\Debug\Prototype.exe</StartProgram>
<StartWorkingDirectory>$(SolutionDir)Build\Debug\</StartWorkingDirectory>
Then it is working as is needed.
Related
I developed an application that depends on a DLL file. When I debug my application, the applicationwould complain that:
"This application has failed to start because xxx.dll was not found."
So I have to copy the DLL file into the same directory as my .vcproj file.
Is there a way to set the project to look for the DLL file in (preferably) some relative path or (not preferred) some absolute path?
Similar concept to how we set include and library path in the project settings.
I mean when I debug my application (hitting F5) the above error would pop up.
Go to project properties (Alt+F7)
Under Debugging, look to the right
There's an Environment field.
Add your relative path there (relative to vcproj folder) i.e. ..\some-framework\lib by appending PATH=%PATH%;$(ProjectDir)\some-framework\lib or prepending to the path PATH=C:\some-framework\lib;%PATH%
Hit F5 (debug) again and it should work.
Go through project properties -> Reference Paths
Then add folder with DLL's
The search path that the loader uses when you call LoadLibrary() can be altered by using the SetDllDirectory() function. So you could just call this and add the path to your dependency before you load it.
See also DLL Search Order.
Another possibility would be to set the Working Directory under the debugging options to be the directory that has that DLL.
Edit: I was going to mention using a batch file to start Visual Studio (and set the PATH variable in the batch file). So then did a bit of searching and see that this exact same question was asked not long ago in this post. The answer suggests the batch file option as well as project settings that apparently may do the job (I did not test it).
In your Project properties(Right click on project, click on property button) ▶ Configuration Properties ▶ Build Events ▶ Post Build Events ▶ Command Line.
Edit and add one instruction to command line.
for example copy botan.dll from source path to location where is being executed the program.
copy /Y "$(SolutionDir)ProjectDirs\x64\Botan\lib\botan.dll" "$(TargetDir)"
I had the same problem and my problem had nothing to do with paths. One of my dll-s was written in c++ and it turnes out that if your visual studio doesn't know how to open a dll file it will say that it did not find it. What i did was locate which dll it did not find, than searched for that dll in my directories and opened it in a separate visual studio window. When trying to navigate through Solution explorer of that project, visual studio said that it cannot show what is inside and that i need some extra extensions, so that it can open those files. Surely enough, after installing the recomended extension (in my case something to do with c++) the
"This application has failed to start because xxx.dll was not found."
error miraculously dissapeared.
I know this question had been answered years ago, but for those like me who needed to change where the debugger starts the application, change the command property under Project Properties -> Debugging.
I developed an application that depends on a DLL file. When I debug my application, the applicationwould complain that:
"This application has failed to start because xxx.dll was not found."
So I have to copy the DLL file into the same directory as my .vcproj file.
Is there a way to set the project to look for the DLL file in (preferably) some relative path or (not preferred) some absolute path?
Similar concept to how we set include and library path in the project settings.
I mean when I debug my application (hitting F5) the above error would pop up.
Go to project properties (Alt+F7)
Under Debugging, look to the right
There's an Environment field.
Add your relative path there (relative to vcproj folder) i.e. ..\some-framework\lib by appending PATH=%PATH%;$(ProjectDir)\some-framework\lib or prepending to the path PATH=C:\some-framework\lib;%PATH%
Hit F5 (debug) again and it should work.
Go through project properties -> Reference Paths
Then add folder with DLL's
The search path that the loader uses when you call LoadLibrary() can be altered by using the SetDllDirectory() function. So you could just call this and add the path to your dependency before you load it.
See also DLL Search Order.
Another possibility would be to set the Working Directory under the debugging options to be the directory that has that DLL.
Edit: I was going to mention using a batch file to start Visual Studio (and set the PATH variable in the batch file). So then did a bit of searching and see that this exact same question was asked not long ago in this post. The answer suggests the batch file option as well as project settings that apparently may do the job (I did not test it).
In your Project properties(Right click on project, click on property button) ▶ Configuration Properties ▶ Build Events ▶ Post Build Events ▶ Command Line.
Edit and add one instruction to command line.
for example copy botan.dll from source path to location where is being executed the program.
copy /Y "$(SolutionDir)ProjectDirs\x64\Botan\lib\botan.dll" "$(TargetDir)"
I had the same problem and my problem had nothing to do with paths. One of my dll-s was written in c++ and it turnes out that if your visual studio doesn't know how to open a dll file it will say that it did not find it. What i did was locate which dll it did not find, than searched for that dll in my directories and opened it in a separate visual studio window. When trying to navigate through Solution explorer of that project, visual studio said that it cannot show what is inside and that i need some extra extensions, so that it can open those files. Surely enough, after installing the recomended extension (in my case something to do with c++) the
"This application has failed to start because xxx.dll was not found."
error miraculously dissapeared.
I know this question had been answered years ago, but for those like me who needed to change where the debugger starts the application, change the command property under Project Properties -> Debugging.
I am porting an old visual studio C++ project. I have a data folder in the project directory that contains all the image assets. The project is build using an external make file.
My problem is, the project cannot load the asset files while running the executable from the VS IDE during debugging. However, if I execute the exe from bin folder, it can load the assets.I am assuming there are some kind of environment issue in the project, but could not figured it out.
Any clue?
My guess is that the program tries to access the assets using a relative path like ..\data\some.data. It works when you run it manually from the bin folder, because the current directory is set to the bin folder itself (the folder from where an application was launched) by default.
But when running projects from the Visual Studio IDE, parameters set under "Project properties > Debugging" tab apply instead. There is an option "Working directory", which defaults to $(ProjectDir), i.e. the folder where the project file resides.
Try changing that to the bin folder, or, if the resulting .exe file is placed directly there, easily just to the $(OutDir) variable.
I have started using files like images in my projects and I've got a problem. If I needed to test any program that use image. I would do it from Debug folder, but I found it not that convenient. So could you help me and tell how can I add images or other files to project in order to run it right from VS and debug.
Thank you.
Your problem seems to be "how to make sure my exe knows where files are when launched both from IDE and separately". Only way this can happen is if files are in the same directory as exe(or relative to it), since there's where your program will be searching when launched on its own. Now, to convince VS to put everything in the same folder you need to:
Create a folder, let's say it will be called WorkingDir and be located in your project directory
Put your sound files in there
In VS right click on project -> properties -> configuration properties -> general -> target name and set it to $(ProjectName)_$(Configuration)
set output directory(on the same page) to $(ProjectDir)WorkingDir
go to debugging and set working directory to $(ProjectDir)WorkingDir
I would like to port my application from Linux to Windows. I'm trying to use visual studio to configure a project to build the Window application. The problem for me is that I only need a subset of files out my directory for Windows. But I would like to keep the integrity of the directory so that I don't need to checkout a subset of file to Windows. Does visual studio need the entire directory to be window files? For those who understand Window application development well, can you help me to understand:
Can I configure visual studio to build a project using a subset of the file from a directory?
If yes, how do I configure the project file? Any link to a tutorial would be really helpful.
Below are couple of quick suggestions using Visual Studio
Include/ Exclude :
If the number of file are minimum, then you could include or exclude files to a project manually.
You could add a directory to a project by copying the files to a folder under the .vcxproj(ur .<>proj) file.
Then select the project in the solution explorer and on the tool bar you would get an option Show All Files
Right click on the Folder or File and hit Include In Project. This will include the file/folder into your project.
You could Exclude any file that is already included in your project by, clicking the file and hit Exclude From Project.
Remove From Compilation Only:
Select the file in Solution Explorer and right click Properties
Under Configuration Properties -> General -> Excluded From Build set it to Yes/No