Where is user.config loaded from during Visual Studio debugging - c#

I have an application that reads from a user settings file, typically stored in Users/{username}/AppData/Local/{publisher}/{app}/{version}/user.config. I want to test making changes directly to the file, not through the Visual Studio properties editor.
I found this answer to a different question that points to where the application is supposedly loading the file from, but it doesn't seem to exist when I check during a debug session in Visual Studio.
For example, when I run the following in the Immediate window when stopped on a breakpoint, it fails to find the file.
System.IO.File.Exists(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(System.Configuration.ConfigurationUserLevel.PerUserRoamingAndLocal).FilePath) //returns false
My reason for wanting to find this file during debugging is that I have received reports of the config file being corrupted and crashing the application in production. I'm sure that I can return that file to a default state, but I want to actually reproduce the problem in a debug environment.
How can I find the settings file loaded by Visual Studio?

I'm not quite sure what changed between when I posted this question and now, but today the code in my question returns true. But to answer the specific question I asked, the user.config file was in a very similar path to a standard installed application.
Standard application:
Users/{username}/AppData/Local/{publisher}/{app}/{version}/user.config
Visual Studio debug application:
Users/{username}/AppData/Local/{publisher}/{app}.vshost.exe{some_hash_value}/{version}/user.config

Related

Visual Studio leaves .cs file locked permanently after debugging

I am experiencing an issue where every time I test my code, which is in a WPF project, the .cs source files are locked (which is expected) while the .xaml files are left unlocked, but after exiting debugging the .cs files never unlock - I cannot edit them post-debug. This question is not about why the files lock during debugging, but why I am having an issue with them staying permanently locked after debugging.
Details:
The project is a WPF class library
I have configured the project to start an external program which loads this library to debug. Breakpoints work fine, but none are set right now
The project is under source control, but the file is checked out and is not read-only
While the file is uneditable, it is not read-only
Just My Code on/off does not affect this
Closing out and reopening the file within Visual Studio results in the file being editable again
The issue is very consistently reproducable, only on rare occasion does it not happen
Since I can close and reopen the tab to fix it, this isn't a massive problem, but losing my place in the code every single time is really quite annoying. I'm open to any suggested solutions.

Visual Studio 2013 is running old code

I have searched and found other topics on this, but none of the solutions seem to work for me. Visual Studio is running old code in debug mode and release mode. If I go to the actual directory and launch the exe, it is the latest code. It is a XAML project.
Things I have tried:
1) Deleted bin and obj folders
2) Rebuilt solution
3) Cleaned solution
4) Made sure the project is set to build in Configuration Manager
Update: I tried adding a new configuration in Configuration Manager. The path is totally different, and it still running the old code. The exe built with the new config is the right code when I launch it manually, but it seems like visual studio is running a cached version of the exe.
Another gotcha I see a lot - be careful with shortcuts. If you are opening the solution via Recent Projects or another shortcut, try opening it via File -> Open or clicking on the solution file itself instead. I see a lot of developers looking at old code or the wrong branch because of this.
Can also try changing the assembly version number. Every once in awhile that will somehow make a difference.
I am not sure what exactly helped, but one thing is certain:
i marked .js file properties "Build action" as "Compile".
Tryed to deploy (got an error of course), and changed it back to "Content".
Rebuild, deploy, run debugger and FINALY it works on my current code.
The Error is back on my "new old" code
What i do is:
click "Continue", go to opened IE window with my page\site, press CTRL + F5,
and what i see?
My new current code inside VS debugger...
Error is gone

Config file while debugging with Visual Studio

I am experiencing a frustrating issue.
When I run my application (with Visual Studio 2012) in debug mode (clicking the start button), some variables from the object Settings.Properties.Default have incorrect values and I can't find how to change them.
I have revised them using the visual control "Settings.settings" and they are correct (I have also revised the Settings.designer.cs code file and is correct). I have also revised all the .config files I have found in the solution ({exe}.config, {exe}.vshost.exe.config, app.config) and the values of the variables are correct in all of them.
So, why in debug mode some variables from the Properties object have different values? And how can I change them?
This issue only occurs in debug mode. If I run the application from the Windows Explorer, the values are correctly read from the .config files.

vs2003 : c# can not build visual studio solution

I get latest from source control and can not build my visual studio solution. I get the following error:
Cannot copy assembly 'XYZ' to file 'C:\myfolder\bin\Debug\XYZ.dll'. The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
I have rebooted the machine but nothing seems to work. please help.
Use ProcessExplorer to determine what other process is holding the DLL open - my bet is that it is Visual Studio itself. Try closing down any open form Design windows (or all code/design windows in VS.Net for that matter) and see if you still get the same problem.
You can use the handle tool to determine what process is using that file:
handle XYZ.dll
From there, you can figure out what started the process and why it's using the file.
Whenever i've seen that error, it was because the program i was trying to compile was still running. You may want to check and make sure any debug sessions are stopped (not just paused, but stopped completely), and that your program doesn't appear in the Task manager under the "Processes" tab.
Try changing the build configuration from Debug to Release and try compiling again.
let's try a simple solution. The DLL in your bin directory is likely marked as Read-Only. Visual studio doesn't check out the DLLs from the BIN directory when you check out source files. So if you keep the binaries in source safe then you need to manually check them out or manually take off the read-only flag in the directory.

the source file is different from when the module was built

This is driving me crazy.
I have a rather large project that I am trying to modify. I noticed earlier that when I typed DbCommand, visual studio did not do any syntax highlighting on it, and I am using using System.Data.Common.
Even though nothing was highlighted, the project seemed to be running fine in my browser. So I decided to run the debugger to see if things were really working as they should be.
Every time the class that didn't do the highlighting is called I get the "the source file is different from when the module was built" message.
I cleaned the solution and rebuilt it several times, deleted tmp files, followed all the directions here Getting "The source file is different from when the module was built.", restarted the web server and still it tells me the source files are different when they clearly are not.
I cannot test any of the code I have written today because of this.
How can the source be different than the binary when I just complied
it?
Is there any way to knock some sense into visual studio, or am
I just missing something?
I got this issue running a console app where the source that was different was the source that had the entry-point (static void Main). Deleting the bin and obj directories and doing a full rebuild seemed to correct this, but every time I made a code change, it would go out-of-date again.
The reason I found for this was:
I had checked "Only build startup projects and dependencies on Run" (Tools -> Options -> Projects and Solutions -> Build and Run)
In Configuration Manager, my start-up project didn't have "Build" checked
(For #2 -> accessible via the toolbar under the 'Debug/Release' drop down list.)
I was just having this same problem, my projects were all in the same solution so they were using Project to Project references, so as one changed the others should have been updated. However it was not the case, I tried to build, rebuild, close VS2010, pulled a new copy from our source control. None of this worked, what I finally ended up trying was right clicking on the project and rebuilding each project individually. That updated the .dlls and .pdb files so I could debug through.
The issue here is that your dll and or your pdb files are not in sync.
Follow these steps
Just delete the bin directory from the project where the DLL is generated.
Re-build the project.
Remove reference from the project that make reference to the DLL.
Include again the reference.
Enjoy.
In addition to these answers I had the same issue while replacing new DLLs with old ones because of the wrong path. If you are still getting this error you may not refer the wrong path for the DLLs. Go to IIS manager and click the website which uses your DLLs. On the right window click Advanced Settings and go to path of the Physical Path folder on File Explorer and be sure that you are using this folder to replace your DLLs.
Some things for you to check:
Have you double checked your project references?
Do you have a Visual Studio started web server still running? Check the system tray and look for a page with a cog icon (you may have more than one):
(source: msdn.com)
Right click and close/exit it. You may have more than one. Can you debug your changes now?
Are you running the debug version but have only built the release version (or vice versa)?
Did the compile actually succeed? I know I've clicked through the "there were errors, do you want to continue anyway?" message a couple of times without realising.
With web services, the problem can be caused by using the Visual Studio "View in Browser" command. This places the service's DLL and PDB files in the bin and obj folders. When stepping into the web service from a client, somehow Visual Studio uses the PDB in the bin (or obj) folder, but it uses the DLL in the project's output build folder. There are a couple workarounds:
Try deleting the DLL and PDB files in the web service bin and obj files.
Try clicking "View in Browser" in Visual Studio.
If you previously got the source file mismatch error, Visual Studio might have added the filename to a black list. Check your solution properties. Choose "Common Properties -> Debug Source Files" on the left side of the dialog box. If your web service source files appear in the field "Do not look for these source files", delete them.
Unload the project that has the file that is causing the error.
Reload the project.
Fixed
I just had this issue.
I tried all the above, but only this worked:
delete the .pdb file for the solution.
delete the offending .obj files (for the file being reported out of sync)
build the solution.
This fixed the issue for all builds moving forward for me.
In Visual Studio 2017 deleting the hidden .vs folder in the resolved this issue for me.
This is how I fixed the problem in Visual Studio 2010:
1) Change the 'Solutions Configurations' option from "Debug" to "Release"
2) Start debugging
3) Stop debugging and switch the 'Solutions Configurations' option back to "Debug"
This worked for me. Step 3 is optional - it was working fine when I changed it to "Release" but I wanted to change it back.
My solution:
I had included an existing project from a different solution in a new solution file.
I did not notice that when the existing project was rebuilt, it was putting the final output into the NEW solution's output directory. I had a linker path defined to look into the OLD solution's output directory.
Switching my project to search in the new solution's output directory fixed this issue for me.
I had this problem, and it turns out I was running my console application as a windows application. Switching the output type back to console fixed the issue.
I had the same problem. To fix it I used the "Release Mode" to debug in VS2013. Which is sufficient for me, because I'm working in a node js\c++ addon.
My problem was that I had two projects in my solution. The second one was a test project used to call the first one. I had picked the path to the references from the bin folder's release folder.
So whenever I made a change to the first project's code and rebuilt it, it would update the dlls in the debug folder but the calling project was pointing to the release folder, giving me the error, "the source file is different from when the module was built."
Once I deleted the reference to the main project's dll in the release folder and set it to the dll in the debug folder, the issue went away.
In my case, the #Eliott's answer doesn't work.
To solve this problem I had Exclude/Include From Project my deficient file, andalso Clean and Rebuild the solution.
After these actions, my file with my last modifications and the debugger are restored.
I hope this help.
solution:-
the problem is:-
if your some projects in a solution , refer to some other projects,
then sometimes the dll of some projects, will not update automatically, whenever you build the solution,
some projects will have previous build dlls, not latest dlls
you have to go manually and copy the dll of latest build project into referenced project
I was using Visual Studio 2013 and I had an existing project under source control.
I had downloaded a fresh copy from source control to a new directory.
After making changes to the fresh copy, when building I received the error in question.
My solution:
1) Open Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config
2) Update virtualDirectory node with directory to the fresh copy and save.
My problem was that I had a webservice in the project and I changed the build path.
Restoring the default build path solved my issue.
I had this same problem and I followed the majority of the guidance in the other answers posted here, nothing seemed to work for me.
I eventually opened IIS and recycled the application pool for my web application. I have IIS version 8.5.9600, I right-clicked my web application, then: Deploy > Recycle > Recycle application pool > OK.
That seems to have fixed it, breakpoints now being hit as expected. I think that doing this along with deleting the bin and obj folders helped my situation.
Good luck!
I know this is an old question but I just had the same problem and wanted to post here in case it helps someone else. I got a new computer and the IT dept merged my old computer with the new one. When I set up TFS, I mapped a different local path than what I was previously using, to an additional internal drive. The old path still existed from the merged data on my hard drive so I could still build and run. My IIS paths were also pointing to the old directory. Once I updated IIS to the correct path, I was able to debug just fine. I also deleted the old directory for good measure.
I also experienced that. I just open the obj folder on the project and then open the debug folder delete the .pdb file and that's all.
This error also happens if you try to make changes to a source file that is not part of the project.
I was debugging a method from a .dll of another one of my projects, where Visual Studio had quite helpfully loaded the source because the .dll had been built on the same machine and it knew the path to the source. Obviously, changing such a file isn't going to do anything unless you rebuild the referenced project.
Delete all breakpoints.
Rebuild.
Done
At Visual Studio 2015, using C++, what fixed for me the the source file is different from when the module was built problem was
restart Visual Studio.
Check if the location you pointed to using mex() in Matlab is correct (contains lib and obj files which are modified to the last date you compiled the library in Visual studio).
If this is not the case:
Make sure you are compiling Visual studio in a mode that saves .lib files :
properties -> Config properties -> General -> Config type -> static library
properties -> Config properties -> General -> Target extension=.lib (instead of exe)
Make sure the output and intermediate directories match the Matlab directory in
properties -> Config properties -> General -> Output directory
properties -> Config properties -> General -> Intermediate directory
I get this issue when debugging sometimes w/ Visual Studio but when the application is served by IIS. (we have to develop in this form for some complicated reasons that have to do with how the original developer setup this project.)
When I change the file and rebuild, that fixes it a lot of the time. I know that sounds silly, but I was just trying to debug some code to see why it's doing something weird when I haven't changed it in a while, and I tried a dozen things from this page, but it was fixed just by changing the file..
In my case, the problem was that the debugger exe path was pointing to a net5.0 bin folder. I am using net6.0, so I should've updated the exe path back when I updated the target framework. Works fine now.
Debug-> start without debugging.
This option worked for me. Hope this helps!

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