LNK2022 metadata operation: Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types

Question

I'm having a new-to-me linker error in a project I'm working with:

1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std.basic_string<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >): (0x0200004e).
1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std.basic_string<wchar_t,std::char_traits<wchar_t>,std::allocator<wchar_t> >): (0x02000075).
1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std._String_iterator<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >): (0x02000091).
1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std._String_const_iterator<char,std::char_traits<char>,std::allocator<char> >): (0x02000092).
1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std._String_val<char,std::allocator<char> >): (0x02000097).
1>MSVCMRTD.lib(locale0_implib.obj) : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (8013118D) : Inconsistent layout information in duplicated types (std._String_val<wchar_t,std::allocator<wchar_t> >): (0x02000099).

We're using Visual Studio 2010 in Windows 7.

This project used to compile. It's a C++/CLI DLL wrapper around some unmanaged code, and thus includes Common Language Runtime Support. The thing that has changed is that an external static library that we linked to was "updated". We're now getting this error when we try to compile the project that links to it.

Microsoft's "help" for this issue is to "run ildasm –tokens on the object files to find which types have the tokens listed in error_message, and look for differences". Then I checked this page and noticed that the /tokens option is only valid for .exe and .dll files... but this is a linker error, so my .dll file isn't made yet!

I've tried running things like ildasm -tokens AssemblyInfo.obj, but the only thing that happens is that a window opens up with this incredibly helpful error message:

Thanks Microsoft!

I'm not really sure how to continue troubleshooting this issue. A Release build works properly -- it's only the Debug that's messed up. So somewhere in the mix I guess the std::string type is of a different size or something...

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Alright, so I solved it! There was another SO question that was actually a big help. It ended up linking to this article, which had a bit more detail about the problem. Basically it's some issue with the standard library strings getting compiled in both managed and unmanaged code. The solution was to only enable the CLR on files which required it. In detail, here's what I did:

1. Removed the /clr switch which applied to the whole project
2. Selected the two .cpp files that actually required the CLR, and manually selected /clr under C/C++ -> General -> Common Language RunTime Support.
3. Switched the whole project to Program Database /Zi from Program Database for Edit and Continue /ZI. This got rid of warnings, because I think /clr support appeared to disable incremental linking, and then my native code was throwing warnings because it was trying to use Edit and Continue.
4. I then got some ExtensionAttribute warnings, which I fixed by adding the following switches to my /clr-enabled files: /clr:nostdlib /AI"%ProgramFiles%\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0"
5. In Debug builds, I had to disable a bunch of debug options on the /clr-enabled files. Specifically, under C/C++ -> Code Generation, I set Enable Minimal Rebuild to No (/RM-), and Basic Runtime Checks to Default. This got rid of a bunch of warnings also.
6. In Debug and Release builds, set Enable C++ Exceptions to No on the clr-enabled files.

Hope this helps!