Why does "dotnet ef migrations add" throw a Win32Exception?

Question

I have a dotnet core v3.1 project with an entity framework DbContext. when I try to run:

dotnet ef migrations add someMigrationName

this Exception will be thrown:

System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): No such file or directory
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(String filename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean redirectStdin, Boolean redirectStdout, Boolean redirectStderr, Boolean setCredentials, UInt32 userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Exe.Run(String executable, IReadOnlyList`1 args, String workingDirectory, Boolean interceptOutput)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Project.FromFile(String file, String buildExtensionsDir, String framework, String configuration, String runtime)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.RootCommand.Execute(String[] _)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Commands.CommandBase.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<Configure>b__0(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.CommandLine.CommandLineApplication.Execute(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Program.Main(String[] args)
No such file or directory

My development environment is a Linux elementary os (Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS) and rider IDE.

It may be irrelevant but when I try to debug my xunit tests it returns this warning and cannot start execution.

All of these commands work properly and show all options:

1. dotnet
2. dotnet ef
3. dotnet ef migrations

but when I use these options Exception raised:

• dotnet ef migrations add
• dotnet ef migrations list

Also, I run my command with verbose option and this is the output:

Using project '/media/navid/9bf0167c-d789-4e06-9e23-4023ec551745/Stuff/Work/SabaCell/venus/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement.csproj'.
Using startup project '/media/navid/9bf0167c-d789-4e06-9e23-4023ec551745/Stuff/Work/SabaCell/venus/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement.csproj'.
Writing '/media/navid/9bf0167c-d789-4e06-9e23-4023ec551745/Stuff/Work/SabaCell/venus/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement/obj/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement.csproj.EntityFrameworkCore.targets'...
dotnet msbuild /target:GetEFProjectMetadata /property:EFProjectMetadataFile=/tmp/tmpUud0Xf.tmp /verbosity:quiet /nologo /media/navid/9bf0167c-d789-4e06-9e23-4023ec551745/Stuff/Work/SabaCell/venus/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement/Venus.CustomerProfileManagement.csproj
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): No such file or directory
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(String filename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean redirectStdin, Boolean redirectStdout, Boolean redirectStderr, Boolean setCredentials, UInt32 userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Exe.Run(String executable, IReadOnlyList`1 args, String workingDirectory, Boolean interceptOutput)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Project.FromFile(String file, String buildExtensionsDir, String framework, String configuration, String runtime)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.RootCommand.Execute(String[] _)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Commands.CommandBase.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<Configure>b__0(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.CommandLine.CommandLineApplication.Execute(String[] args)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools.Program.Main(String[] args)
No such file or directory

this is the result of running dotnet --info in my environment:

.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   3.1.405
 Commit:    3fae16e62e

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     elementary
 OS Version:  5.1.7
 OS Platform: Linux
 RID:         linux-x64
 Base Path:   /usr/share/dotnet/sdk/3.1.405/

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 3.1.11
  Commit:  f5eceb8105

.NET Core SDKs installed:
  3.1.405 [/usr/share/dotnet/sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.11 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.11 [/usr/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

To install additional .NET Core runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

Answer 1

This helped me,

I deleted dotnet symlink in /usr/local/bin/ (macOS)

Answer 2

It didn't work for me removing the symlink. I had to reinstall the dotnet-ef tool:

dotnet new tool-manifest

dotnet tool install dotnet-ef

That fixed the issue :)

Answer 3

I was able to solve this issue with @bjorn answer. there was a symlink in my /usr/local/bin pointing to /snap/..., back when I tried to install .net sdk with snap, which was not successful, so I tried a different approach. Just complementing @bjorn answer, this is what I did :

Check if you have a symlink :

ls -l /usr/local/bin/

It will look something like this :

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root       54 jul 22 09:46 dotnet -> /snap/...

Then remove it :

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/dotnet