Scaffolding error : deps.json doesn't exist

Question

I'm currently using VS2017 for developing .NET Core MVC Web

When I tried to create a new Controller from Add > Controller, I got this error

Error

There was an error running the code generator: "The specified deps.json
[C:\Users\xxx\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Projects\bin\MCD\Debug\netcoreapp1.1
\[project name].deps.json] does not exist"

When I explored the solution folder, I found that there are two folder in the bin directory, Debug and MCD.

bin
|
- Debug
 - netcoreapp1.1
  - ...
  - [project name].deps.json
|
- MCD <- this is where the scaffolding looks for deps.json

I noticed that I also got the same problem when debugging .NET Console app (which I created from dotnet new console cli command) from Visual Studio Code. The same problem faced in .deps.json could not be found

Are there any .NET Core configs that I missed? Or this is a bug in .NET Core? I remember I didn't configure anything prior from installing my .NET Core in VS2017

Answer 1

In my case, this error appeared after the VS update. Don't know why, but what I did:

1. Go to your project folder and just remove the bin and obj folders.
2. Rebuild your project.
3. Add your new controller. It should work.

Perhaps it will help someone.

Answer 2

Found the answer here : https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues/113

Apparently, this is some kind of bug that appeared on HP computers. I'll quote from the GitHub issue :

they have an environment variable called Platform, set to MCD which is why you are seeing this error.

This cause .NET Core to look for the file at MCD folder of your bin, instead of your normal Debug file. All you have to do is delete the variable or set it to nothing

Answer 3

I had the problem with EF/add-migration in VS Comunity 16.9.3. My start project (bold in solution explorer) was set to one without EF. I switched that to the EF project and add-migration worked fine.