I have a very similar problem as described here.
I also upgraded a mixed solution of C++/CLI and C# projects from Visual Studio 2008 to Visual Studio 2010. And now in Visual Studio 2010 one C++/CLI project always runs out of date.
Even if it has been compiled and linked just before and F5 is hit, the messagebox "The project is out of date. Would you like to build it?" appears. This is very annoying because the DLL file is very low-tiered and forces almost all projects of the solution to rebuild.
My pdb settings are set to the default value (suggested solution of this problem).
Is it possible the get the reason why Visual Studio 2010 forces a rebuild or thinks a project is up to date?
Any other ideas why Visual Studio 2010 behaves like that?
For Visual Studio/Express 2010 only. See other (easier) answers for VS2012, VS2013, etc
To find the missing file(s), use info from the article Enable C++ project system logging to enable debug logging in Visual Studio and let it just tell you what's causing the rebuild:
Open the devenv.exe.config file (found in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ or in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\). For Express versions the config file is named V*Express.exe.config.
Add the following after the </configSections> line:
<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="CPS" value="4" />
</switches>
</system.diagnostics>
Restart Visual Studio
Open up DbgView and make sure it's capturing debug output
Try to debug (hit F5 in Visual Studio)
Search the debug log for any lines of the form:
devenv.exe Information: 0 : Project 'Bla\Bla\Dummy.vcxproj' not up to date because build input 'Bla\Bla\SomeFile.h' is missing.
(I just hit Ctrl+F and searched for not up to date) These will be the references causing the project to be perpetually "out of date".
To correct this, either remove any references to the missing files from your project, or update the references to indicate their actual locations.
Note: If using 2012 or later then the snippet should be:
<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="CPS" value="Verbose" />
</switches>
</system.diagnostics>
In Visual Studio 2012 I was able to achieve the same result easier than in the accepted solution.
I changed the option in menu Tools → Options → Projects and Solutions → Build and Run → *MSBuild project build output verbosity" from Minimal to Diagnostic.
Then in the build output I found the same lines by searching for "not up to date":
Project 'blabla' is not up to date. Project item 'c:\foo\bar.xml' has 'Copy to Output Directory' attribute set to 'Copy always'.
This happened to me today. I was able to track down the cause: The project included a header file which no longer existed on disk.
Removing the file from the project solved the problem.
We also ran into this issue and found out how to resolve it.
The issue was as stated above "The file no longer exists on the disk."
This is not quite correct. The file does exist on the disk, but the .VCPROJ file is referencing the file somewhere else.
You can 'discover' this by going to the "include file view" and clicking on each include file in turn until you find the one that Visual Studio can not find. You then ADD that file (as an existing item) and delete the reference that can not be found and everything is OK.
A valid question is: How can Visual Studio even build if it does not know where the include files are?
We think the .vcproj file has some relative path to the offending file somewhere that it does not show in the Visual Studio GUI, and this accounts for why the project will actually build even though the tree-view of the includes is incorrect.
The accepted answer helped me on the right path to figuring out how to solve this problem for the screwed up project I had to start working with. However, I had to deal with a very large number of bad include headers. With the verbose debug output, removing one caused the IDE to freeze for 30 seconds while outputting debug spew, which made the process go very slowly.
I got impatient and wrote a quick-and-dirty Python script to check the (Visual Studio 2010) project files for me and output all the missing files at once, along with the filters they're located in. You can find it as a Gist here: https://gist.github.com/antiuniverse/3825678 (or this fork that supports relative paths)
Example:
D:\...> check_inc.py sdk/src/game/client/swarm_sdk_client.vcxproj
[Header Files]:
fx_cs_blood.h (cstrike\fx_cs_blood.h)
hud_radar.h (cstrike\hud_radar.h)
[Game Shared Header Files]:
basecsgrenade_projectile.h (..\shared\cstrike\basecsgrenade_projectile.h)
fx_cs_shared.h (..\shared\cstrike\fx_cs_shared.h)
weapon_flashbang.h (..\shared\cstrike\weapon_flashbang.h)
weapon_hegrenade.h (..\shared\cstrike\weapon_hegrenade.h)
weapon_ifmsteadycam.h (..\shared\weapon_ifmsteadycam.h)
[Source Files\Swarm\GameUI - Embedded\Base GameUI\Headers]:
basepaenl.h (swarm\gameui\basepaenl.h)
...
Source code:
#!/c/Python32/python.exe
import sys
import os
import os.path
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
ns = '{http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003}'
#Works with relative path also
projectFileName = sys.argv[1]
if not os.path.isabs(projectFileName):
projectFileName = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), projectFileName)
filterTree = ET.parse(projectFileName+".filters")
filterRoot = filterTree.getroot()
filterDict = dict()
missingDict = dict()
for inc in filterRoot.iter(ns+'ClInclude'):
incFileRel = inc.get('Include')
incFilter = inc.find(ns+'Filter')
if incFileRel != None and incFilter != None:
filterDict[incFileRel] = incFilter.text
if incFilter.text not in missingDict:
missingDict[incFilter.text] = []
projTree = ET.parse(projectFileName)
projRoot = projTree.getroot()
for inc in projRoot.iter(ns+'ClInclude'):
incFileRel = inc.get('Include')
if incFileRel != None:
incFile = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(projectFileName), incFileRel))
if not os.path.exists(incFile):
missingDict[filterDict[incFileRel]].append(incFileRel)
for (missingGroup, missingList) in missingDict.items():
if len(missingList) > 0:
print("["+missingGroup+"]:")
for missing in missingList:
print(" " + os.path.basename(missing) + " (" + missing + ")")
I've deleted a cpp and some header files from the solution (and from the disk) but still had the problem.
Thing is, every file the compiler uses goes in a *.tlog file in your temp directory.
When you remove a file, this *.tlog file is not updated. That's the file used by incremental builds to check if your project is up to date.
Either edit this .tlog file manually or clean your project and rebuild.
I had a similar problem, but in my case there were no files missing, there was an error in how the pdb output file was defined: I forgot the suffix .pdb (I found out with the debug logging trick).
To solve the problem I changed, in the vxproj file, the following line:
<ProgramDataBaseFileName>MyName</ProgramDataBaseFileName>
to
<ProgramDataBaseFileName>MyName.pdb</ProgramDataBaseFileName>
I had this problem in VS2013 (Update 5) and there can be two reasons for that, both of which you can find by enabling "Detailed" build output under "Tools"->"Projects and Solutions"->"Build and Run".
"Forcing recompile of all source files due to missing PDB "..."
This happens when you disable debug information output in your compiler options (Under Project settings: „C/C++“->“Debug Information Format“ to „None“ and „Linker“->“Generate Debug Info“ to „No“: ). If you have left „C/C++“->“Program Database File Name“ at the default (which is „$(IntDir)vc$(PlatformToolsetVersion).pdb“), VS will not find the file due to a bug (https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/833494/project-with-debug-information-disabled-always-rebuilds).
To fix it, simply clear the file name to "" (empty field).
"Forcing rebuild of all source files due to a change in the command line since the last build."
This seems to be a known VS bug too (https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/833943/forcing-rebuild-of-all-source-files-due-to-a-change-in-the-command-line-since-the-last-build) and seems to be fixed in newer versions (but not VS2013). I known of no workaround, but if you do, by all means, post it here.
I don't know if anyone else has this same problem, but my project's properties had "Configuration Properties" -> C/C++ -> "Debug Information Format" set to "None", and when I switched it back to the default "Program Database (/Zi)", that stopped the project from recompiling every time.
Another simple solution referenced by Visual Studio Forum.
Changing configuration: menu Tools → Options → Projects and Solutions → VC++ Project Settings → Solution Explorer Mode to Show all files.
Then you can see all files in Solution Explorer.
Find the files marked by the yellow icon and remove them from the project.
It's OK.
Visual Studio 2013 -- "Forcing recompile of all source files due to missing PDB". I turned on detailed build output to locate the issue: I enabled "Detailed" build output under "Tools" → "Projects and Solutions" → "Build and Run".
I had several projects, all C++, I set the option for under project settings: (C/C++ → Debug Information Format) to Program Database (/Zi) for the problem project. However, this did not stop the problem for that project. The problem came from one of the other C++ projects in the solution.
I set all C++ projects to "Program Database (/Zi)". This fixed the problem.
Again, the project reporting the problem was not the problem project. Try setting all projects to "Program Database (/Zi)" to fix the problem.
I met this problem today, however it was a bit different. I had a CUDA DLL project in my solution. Compiling in a clean solution was OK, but otherwise it failed and the compiler always treated the CUDA DLL project as not up to date.
I tried the solution from this post.
But there is no missing header file in my solution. Then I found out the reason in my case.
I have changed the project's Intermediate Directory before, although it didn't cause trouble. And now when I changed the CUDA DLL Project's Intermediate Directory back to $(Configuration)\, everything works right again.
I guess there is some minor problem between CUDA Build Customization and non-default Intermediate Directory.
I had similar problem and followed the above instructions (the accepted answer) to locate the missing files, but not without scratching my head. Here is my summary of what I did. To be accurate these are not missing files since they are not required by the project to build (at least in my case), but they are references to files that don't exist on disk which are not really required.
Here is my story:
Under Windows 7 the file is located at %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\%. There are two similar files devenv.exe.config.config and devenv.exe.config. You want to change later one.
Under Windows 7, you don't have permission to edit this file being in program files. Just copy it somewhere else (desktop) change it and than copy it back to the program files location.
I was trying to figure out how to connect DebugView to the IDE to see the missing files. Well, you don't have to do anything. Just run it, and it will capture all the messages. Make sure Capture Events menu option is selected in Capture menu which by default should be selected.
DebugView will NOT display all the missing files at once (at least it didn't for me)! You would have DebugView running and than run the project in Visual Studio 2010. It will prompt the project out of date message, select Yes to build and DebugView will show the first file that is missing or causing the rebuild. Open the project file (not solution file) in Notepad and search for that file and delete it. You are better off closing your project and reopening it again while doing this delete. Repeat this process until DebugView no longer shows any files missing.
It's kind of helpful to set the message filter to not up to date from the DebugView toolbar button or Edit → Filter/Highlight option. That way the only messages it displays are the one that has `not up to date' string in it.
I had lots of files that were unnecessary references and removing them all fixed the issue following the above steps.
Second way to find all the missing files at once
There is a second way to find these files all at once, but it involves (a) source control and (b) integration of it with Visual Studio 2010. Using Visual Studio 2010, add your project to a desired location or dummy location in source control. It will try to add all the files, including those that don't exist on disk as well but referenced in the project file. Go to your source control software like Perforce, and it should mark these files which don't exist on disk in a different color scheme. Perforce shows them with a black lock on them. These are your missing references. Now you have a list of them all, and you can delete all of them from your project file using Notepad and your project would not complain about being out of date.
For me it was the presence of a non-existing header file on "Header Files" inside the project. After removing this entry (right-click > Exclude from Project) first time recompiled, then directly
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 5 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
and no attempt of rebuilding without modification was done. I think is a check-before-build implemented by VS2010 (not sure if documented, could be) which triggers the "AlwaysCreate" flag.
If you are using the command-line MSBuild command (not the Visual Studio IDE), for example if you are targetting AppVeyor or you just prefer the command line, you can add this option to your MSBuild command line:
/fileLoggerParameters:LogFile=MyLog.log;Append;Verbosity=diagnostic;Encoding=UTF-8
As documented here (warning: usual MSDN verbosity). When the build finishes, search for the string will be compiled in the log file created during the build, MyLog.log.
I'm using Visual Studio 2013 Professional with Update 4 but didn't find resolution with any of the other suggestions, however, I did manage to resolve the issue for my Team project.
Here's what I did to cause the problem -
Created a new class object (Project -> Add Class)
Renamed the file via Solution Explorer and clicked yes when asked if I wanted to automatically rename all references to match
Here's what I did to solve the problem -
Go to Team Explorer Home
Click Source Control Explorer
Drill into the folder where all of the class/project files are
Found the ORIGINAL filename in the list and deleted it via right-click
Build
If this is the case for you then just be extra sure that you're deleting the phantom file rather than the actual one you want to keep in the project.
I had this problem and found this:
http://curlybrace.blogspot.com/2005/11/visual-c-project-continually-out-of.html
Visual C++ Project continually out-of-date (winwlm.h macwin32.h rpcerr.h macname1.h missing)
Problem:
In Visual C++ .Net 2003, one of my projects always claimed to be out of date, even though nothing had changed and no errors had been reported in the last build.
Opening the BuildLog.htm file for the corresponding project showed a list of PRJ0041 errors for these files, none of which appear on my system anywhere:
winwlm.h macwin32.h rpcerr.h macname1.h
Each error looks something like this:
MyApplication : warning PRJ0041 : Cannot find missing dependency 'macwin32.h' for file 'MyApplication.rc'.
Your project may still build, but may continue to appear out of date until this file is found.
Solution:
Include afxres.h instead of resource.h inside the project's .rc file.
The project's .rc file contained "#include resource.h". Since the resource compiler does not honor preprocessor #ifdef blocks, it will tear through and try to find include files it should be ignoring. Windows.h contains many such blocks. Including afxres.h instead fixed the PRJ0041 warnings and eliminated the "Project is out-of-date" error dialog.
In my case one of the projects contains multiple IDL files. The MIDL compiler generates a DLL data file called 'dlldata.c' for each of them, regardless of the IDL file name. This caused Visual Studio to compile the IDL files on every build, even without changes to any of the IDL files.
The workaround is to configure a unique output file for each IDL file (the MIDL compiler always generates such a file, even if the /dlldata switch is omitted):
Right-click the IDL file
Select Properties - MIDL - Output
Enter a unique file name for the DllData File property
I spent many hours spent tearing out my hair over this. The build output wasn't consistent; different projects would be "not up to date" for different reasons from one build to the next consecutive build.
I eventually found that the culprit was DropBox (3.0.4). I junction my source folder from ...\DropBox into my projects folder (not sure if this is the reason), but DropBox somehow "touches" files during a build. Paused syncing and everything is consistently up-to-date.
There are quite a few potential reasons and - as noted - you need to first diagnose them by setting MSBuild verbosity to 'Diagnostic'. Most of the time the stated reason would be self explanatory and you'd be able to act on it immediatelly, BUT occasionally MSBuild would erroneously claim that some files are modified and need to be copied.
If that is the case, you'd need to either disable NTFS tunneling or duplicate your output folder to a new location. Here it is in more words.
This happened to me multiple times and then went away, before I could figure out why. In my case it was:
Wrong system time in the dual boot setup!
Turns out, my dual boot with Ubuntu was the root cause!! I've been too lazy to fix up Ubuntu to stop messing with my hardware clock. When I log into Ubuntu, the time jumps 5 hours forward.
Out of bad luck, I built the project once, with the wrong system time, then corrected the time. As a result, all the build files had wrong timestamps, and VS would think they are all out of date and would rebuild the project.
Most build systems use data time stamps to determine when rebuilds should happen - the date/time stamp of any output files is checked against the last modified time of the dependencies - if any of the dependencies are fresher, then the target is rebuilt.
This can cause problems if any of the dependencies somehow get an invalid data time stamp as it's difficult for the time stamp of any build output to ever exceed the timestamp of a file supposedly created in the future :P
For me, the problem arose in a WPF project where some files had their 'Build Action' property set to 'Resource' and their 'Copy to Output Directory' set to 'Copy if newer'. The solution seemed to be to change the 'Copy to Output Directory' property to 'Do not copy'.
msbuild knows not to copy 'Resource' files to the output - but still triggers a build if they're not there. Maybe that could be considered a bug?
It's hugely helpful with the answers here hinting how to get msbuild to spill the beans on why it keeps building everything!
If you change the Debugging Command arguments for the project, this will also trigger the project needs to be rebuilt message. Even though the target itself is not affected by the Debugging arguments, the project properties have changed. If you do rebuild though, the message should disappear.
I had a similar issue with Visual Studio 2005, and my solution consisted of five projects in the following dependency (first built at top):
Video_Codec depends on nothing
Generic_Graphics depends on Video_Codec
SpecificAPI_Graphics depends on Generic_Graphics
Engine depends on Specific_Graphics
Application depends on Engine.
I was finding that the Video_Codec project wanted a full build even after a full clean then rebuild of the solution.
I fixed this by ensuring the pdb output file of both the C/C++ and linker matched the location used by the other working projects. I also switched RTTI on.
Another one on Visual Studio 2015 SP3, but I have encountered a similar issue on Visual Studio 2013 a few years back.
My issue was that somehow a wrong cpp file was used for precompiled headers (so I had two cpp files that created the precompiled headers). Now why did Visual Studio change the flags on the wrong cpp to 'create precompiled headers' without my request I have no clue, but it did happen... maybe some plugin or something???
Anyway, the wrong cpp file includes the version.h file which is changed on every build. So Visual Studio rebuilds all headers and because of that the whole project.
Well, now it's back to normal behavior.
I had a VC++ project that was always compiling all files and had been previously upgraded from VS2005 to VS2010 (by other people). I found that all cpp files in the project except StdAfx.cpp were set to Create (/Yc) the precompiled header. I changed this so that only StdAfx.cpp was set to create the precompiled header and the rest were set to Use (/Yu) the precompiled header and this fixed the problem for me.
I'm on Visual Studio 2013 and just updated to the Windows 10 May 2019 update and compiling suddenly had to be redone every time, regardless of changes. Tried renaming the pch to ProjectName instead of TargetName, looked for missing files with the detailed log and that Python script, but in the end it was my time was not synced with MS's servers (by like milliseconds).
What resolved this for me was
"Adjust date and time" in the control panel
"Sync Now"
Now my projects don't need to be recompiled for no reason.
I think that you placed some newline or other whitespace. Remove it and press F5 again.
The .NET projects are always recompiled regardless. Part of this is to keep the IDE up to date (such as IntelliSense). I remember asking this question on an Microsoft forum years ago, and this was the answer I was given.
I've a C++ project that I'm currently porting from VS2008 to VS2010. When I build the project, Visual Studio 2010 reports the build as successful but if I then press F5 to start the debugger I'm told that the project is not up to date. If I ignore this warning, I can continue debugging ok, but if I press ok, the whole project (many hundreds of source files), gets rebuilt from scratch. The output contains the following;
1>------ Build started: Project: SCCW-VC2010, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>Build started 15/11/2010 14:47:40.
1>InitializeBuildStatus:
1> Creating "Debug\SCCW-VC2010.unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
1>Midl:
1> All outputs are up-to-date.
1>ClCompile:
1> tinedit.cpp
1> _WIN32_WINNT not defined. Defaulting to _WIN32_WINNT_MAXVER (see WinSDKVer.h)
1> Automatically linking with sfl504d.lib
1> Automatically linking with ot1104d.lib
1>c:\program files\rogue wave\stingray studio 10.4\include\toolkit\sectndlg.h(134): warning C4996: 'strcpy': This function or variable may be unsafe. Consider using strcpy_s instead. To disable deprecation, use _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS. See online help for details.
1> c:\program files\microsoft visual studio 10.0\vc\include\string.h(105) : see declaration of 'strcpy'
1> Automatically linking with og1204d.lib
1> Automatically linking with RWUXThemeD10.lib
1> profile.cpp
1> ZOffsetDialog.cpp
Half an hour later, once the build is finished, the debugger starts. My guess is that the message
Creating "Debug\SCCW-VC2010.unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
is part of the problem, but I cant tie this to a project setting. I've found some help on google, but nothing that has worked thus far. Anyone else had this problem and know of a fix?
Edit: As per Jalf's suggestion in the comments below, I have created a new projected, imported all my files into that project, and the new project has the same problems. Specifically, I copied over all the following groups;
<ClCompile Include="..\MyDir\MyFile.cpp"/>
<ClInclude Include="..\MyDir\MyFile.h" />
<None Include="res\MyFile.ico" /> (and all similar resources)
<Library Include="..\MyDir\MyFile.lib" />
Edit2: After going through all the header includes I eventually found 3 that did not exist. Removing them and doing a rebuild all on the original project seems to have fixed the problem. Some of the blog posts that mention this problem refer to it as a bug, and two days of lost time later, I tend to agree. Thanks for the answers and comments provided.
Edit3: And one day later the problem is back! Making any edit to any file in the project once again causes a full rebuild. As per John Dibling's answer, the project does include some static libraries, including Stingray. I'm ditching VS2010 and moving back to VS2008, as I have deadlines. For related information, see the following links;
Visual Studio 2010 always thinks project is out of date, but nothing has changed
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vcgeneral/thread/38c08137-3bb0-4143-b97f-72d077646318
Link
Final Edit The release of VS2010 SP1 has solved this problem, and builds are now fast and efficient.
See in output window what file is rebuild
Go to menu Tools->Options, then navigate to Project and Solutions->Build and Run. Change option MSBuild Project build output verbosity to:
Diagnostic
Build, got long log
Find file (from 1) in log, read diagnostic.
You may found for example header name which has date in future or absent.
I've had this problem many times and it was always frustrating. I'll tell you what the problem was in my case, but first I have to ask you:
Did you do a rebuild-all before you tried running the first time, or just a rebuild?
Once you do a rebuild all, does it ask you yet again to rebuild if you've made no changes?
The problem in my case was somewhat complex. I had custom build rules that copies binaries for Stingray from their source directory (where they lived) to a directory in my build tree. The binaries were marked as a dependancy, so that they were copied before each build in case they changed.
The dependancy checked looked at the timestamps of these files to see when they were changed. If the blah.lib had a mod date of last December in it's source directory, then when it was copied it would have the same mod date. The dependancy checked would note that "hey this file's pretty old, we have to rebuild it," and then it would ask if I wanted to do a full rebuild.
For a while I got by by just saying "No," but eventually I fixed the problem by changing the custom build rule to write a new text file after it did the file copy. That would make the new text file the dependancy, and not the blah.lib file, and it made the compiler happy.
I had the same problem on both converted and from-scratch projects. I got a hint from a MS page about missing files. I checked my project and found that it referenced a file that did not exist. Replaced it with the correct file, and the problem went away.
I know this is a very, very old post but for the benefit of all who still have this problem I decided to post my input.
because "AlwaysCreate" was specified has nothing to do with project being rebuilt.
IT is the other way around.
If you or Visual Studio decides to rebuild all, this causes creation of the "*.unsuccessfulbuild" file.
Some other issue (usually header that does not exist) will cause rebuild all leading to displaying because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
"AlwaysCreate" is a part of Visual Studio build environment settings and is part of the Microsoft.CppBuild.targets XML file.
It contains following line: Touch AlwaysCreate="true" Files="$(LastBuildUnsuccessful)"/
It this is set to true, ".unsuccessfulbuild" file will always be created regardless of the build being successful or not. If this is changed to false, ".unsuccessfulbuild is not created.
If true the *.unsuccessfulbuild file is created as empty for the duration of the build process and then delete if build is successful.
I am not sure why this file is created; even if the build has errors, the file is empty but not deleted as in case of the successful build.
Possibly the existence of this file has some meaning known only to VS build environment.
If you want to play with this setting, deleting Touch key from
The MSDN docs imply that this property is specific to deployment projects.
findstr /si AlwaysCreate on your VS2010 project files should show you the culprit(s) if you can't track it down in the GUI.
Decided to revisit this with the release version of SP1. I recreated a new project from scratch, which came out at 81k compared to the upgraded older project of 1.4mb which was carrying all sorts of junk with it. Initially, I came across the same problem, but managed to resolve it as follows;
Changed pre-compiled headers to Create (/Yc)
Compiled one source file
Changed pre-compiled headers to Use (/Yu)
Did a full rebuild
Next problem I noticed was that any resource addition was causing a recompile of all files containing including resource.h This was fixed using advice from the following Microsoft connect thread and manually adding the following lines to my project;
<ItemGroup>
<ClNoDependencies Include="Resource.h" />
</ItemGroup>
In my case it seemed to help to build the deployment project(s). I have set them not to build when I hit F7 but manually. Some people suggest creating a new solution + projects but that's not a very good option when the projects have a lot of manual tweaking and custom build rules.
The link is in one of the comments here, but it is easy to miss, so I repost the basic steps here from this link: MSDN Article
Actually I found this link on my own, and only later realized that this was already mentioned here.
1. Since it can be difficult to recover from a damaged devenv.exe.config file, consider copying the file to devenv.exe.config.original before modifying it so you have a backup copy you can revert to if things go awry.
2. Open your VisualStudioInstallFolder\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.config file. Note this will be in %ProgramFiles(x86)% on 64-bit Windows.
3. Open a text editor with admin privileges.
4. Add this snippet to your devenv.exe.config file just below the <configSections /> block:
For Visual Studio 2012 and below...
<system.diagnostics>
<switches><add name="CPS" value="4" /></switches>
</system.diagnostics>
For Visual Studio 2013
<system.diagnostics>
<switches><add name="CPS" value="Verbose" /></switches>
</system.diagnostics>
5. Save the text file.
I use Visual Studio 2010 + SP1 and both of the XML snippets seem to work.
Now you need a tool that can display windows DebugOutput like DebugView.
1. Start DebugView
2. Rebuild
3. Build
4. In DebugView window search for the string ‘missing’ or 'not up to date', better still to save the DebugView log entries and open it in notepad and then search.
If there are no "legitimate" reasons for the constant rebuilding (e.g. references to missing header files), try deleting the solution's .sdf file (when the solution is closed, of course) and rebuilding. That just worked for me.
Solution modifying devenv.exe.config + use of DebugView worked for me (vs2010).
DebugView lists the missing file for you.
If file date is abnormal, that case is occurred.
VS Compiler must recompile all files with future date.
-- Example --
Current date : June 30, 2015
File date : July 1, 2015
The file is always compiled during today.
It is not related with AlwaysCreate directive.
i'm new to visual studio and couldn't find anything on google about this. i know this is an extremely noobish question, but i can't seem to find any info for it.
the debug shows me whatever i write, and the build has no errors, so i know the code i'm writing is fine.
the release folder doesn't contain the .exe, even after i build it, rebuild, clean, etc.
it's a win 32 console project. the release folder contains the .obj files, the manifest, the build log, idb, pch and pdb files (one of each)
Some possible reasons:
Did you accidentally create a class library project? In that case the output would be a DLL and not an EXE.
Does the output window or the error list display any build errors? In that case you should first fix these, then build again.
Did you change the configuration of the project, so that the output (EXE) is created in a different folder than the default one?
There's not a whole lot of reason for people to be guessing... You said you can find the build log - the exact location of any output file will be in there. To make sure you're seeing the right build log file, the output window in VS will have a link to the file that particular build run created:
1>Build log was saved at "file://c:\DevTrees\cppTest\Debug\BuildLog.htm"
1>cppTest - 0 error(s), 2 warning(s)
If you're having trouble interpreting it, post the contents.
I had the same problem; the advice above to look closely at the output window was just what I needed - thanks. My confusion was because I was looking in solution>project>Debug when VS put it in solution>Debug.
The Release and Debug folders contain outputs from different build configurations.
If you look in Project properties, you will see an Output Folder setting in the Build section, and it will be different for each configuration. (You can see the setting for each configuration using the dropdown list at the top of the Project Properties window)
The Release folder will only get populated when you build the project in the Release configuration.
To switch to the Release configuration, use the dropdown list in the toolbar.
EDIT: I am describing the UI for C# projects. It may be different for native code.
Are you sure that your project type is correct? A class library project won't build an executable. It would need to be some sort of application project to create an executable.
I had the same problem. The compilation went fine, but no .exe was generated in the target folder (.\Debug).
The problem was actually that the file containing the main() function was called "FooProject.cpp". I renamed it to "main.cpp" and then the .exe was generated properly.
In other IDEs such as Eclipse CDT, you don't need to have your main file called "main.cpp" as long as you have a proper main() function. This is apparently not the case for Visual C++.