Error Creating Debug Information - Code Won't Compile

Question

I'm using VS 2008. When ever I make a change in my code and try to compile I get the following error:

Error 7 Unexpected error creating debug information file 'C:\Documents and Settings\jbezanson\My Documents\MyProjects\DispatchBoard\DispatchBoard\obj\Debug\DispatchBoard.PDB' -- 'C:\Documents and Settings\jbezanson\My Documents\MyProjects\DispatchBoard\DispatchBoard\obj\Debug\DispatchBoard.pdb: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. ' DispatchBoard

Using Process Explorer, it is always devenv.exe that is locking the file. If I run in Release mode this does not happen. It started 2 days ago when I started a WPF application, and since then it happens with every application I work on.

The only info I could find from Google was referring to a bug in VS 2003.

Anyone else have this problem? How do I fix it? It is getting very annoying having to kill the file handle every time I want to compile.

Answer 1

Have you tried closing VS, deleting obj folder then restarting VS?

Answer 2

Since you say you have it on all applications you work on it sounds like a more global problem. You could try and reinit the vs2008 by writing

devenv.exe /setup

Edit: link to command line options

Answer 3

When I have problems with locked files, I use Unlocker. (If you tried everything and it's not working, try this ;)

Answer 4

I have solved a similar problem by adding these lines as a pre-build event:

if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
if exist "$(TargetPath)" move "$(TargetPath)" "$(TargetPath).locked"

With proper modifications, it might help your problem.

Answer 5

I just came across the same problem today. And then I realized what went wrong: I had couple of Visual Studio windows opened at the same time, and one of them was in debug mode.

When I stopped debug mode in that one, the problem was solved.

That happens when you have a "fistfull of VS windows" opened.

Answer 6

I had the same problem this morning and noticed that I had another project open that had a reference to the one that would not compile or debug. I removed the reference (as I didn't actually need it) and it was fine.