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buildbuild-processvisual-studio-2012

"Cannot update project reference" error introduced by Visual Studio 2012

I had a command line build which was working fine with Visual Studio 2010.

I am now trying the same solution with Visual Studio 2012.

When I build it via the command line: 

devenv MediaPlayer.sln /build "Release|Any CPU"

I get a pile of errors with the website:

37>------ Build started: Project: C:...\Web\, Configuration: Debug Any CPU ------

37>Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Cannot update project reference ''. Source project not available.Validating Web Site

But then I open the SAME solution in Visual Studio 2012, and build it. It builds.

I then run this same build via the command line, and it builds.

So I check it in, and let the build process fetch it into the build directory, and I get THE SAME ERRORS.

At this point, I'm stumped as to what to do next. Any pointers?

Solution

  • When the Visual Studio 2012 build output says

    Cannot update project reference

    It's actually saying

    Something went wrong, and you know what?

    I'm not going to tell you what it is!

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    After a full days search, it came down to a third party library (Castle.Windsor.dll) not being in the .bin directory. I don't know why this problem showed up with Visual Studio 2012 and not Visual Studio 2010. My guess is that in Visual Studio 2010, this was automatically copied over because it was a dependency of another project the website was dependent on.

    I manually created a .refresh file for Castle.Windsor.dll and Castle.Core.dll, and now it builds.