Visual Studio 2013 fatal error C1041 /FS

Question

I'm using Visual Studio 2013. Every so often by project refuses to compile. If I undo any changes, it still won't compile. I've found that recreating the entire project works. I would like to actually fix the problem though. The error that I'm getting is:

1>Critic.cpp : fatal error C1041: cannot open program database 'c:\users\username\desktop\projectName\projectName\x64\debug\vc120.pdb'; if multiple CL.EXE write to the same .PDB file, please use /FS

I've tried following these instructions to no avail: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn502518.aspx

Has anyone else encountered this and found a fix?

Answer 1

I had this problem because different projects in a solution had the same intermediate directory.

Changing

$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\

to

$(Platform)\$(Configuration)\$(ProjectName)\

in

Configuration Properties | General | Intermediate Directory

in each of the projects solved it.

Answer 2

I agree with PThomasCS.

Firstly I tried to use Microsoft advice /FS (Force Synchronous PDB Writes):

To set this compiler option in the Visual Studio development environment

1. Open the project's Property Pages dialog box. For details, see Working with Project Properties.
2. Select the C/C++ folder.
3. Select the Command Line property page.
4. Modify the Additional Options property to include /FS and then choose OK.

but it didn't work.

I noticed that dropbox lock the file. I stopped the synchronization. After that error disappeared. So try to close/stop any program that may lock the files.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

if you use CUDA, then set

Project -> Properties -> CUDA C/C++ -> Host -> Additional Compiler Options -> /FS