Error: `.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\` was not found

[softworkz]

Branch

Current release/3.1 branch

Describe the bug

Running the .\Restore.cmd command ends with an error about missing VC props and targets

To Reproduce

git clone https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore.git

cd aspnetcore

git checkout release/3.1

git submodule update --init --recursive

.\restore.cmd

Exceptions (if any)

F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\AspNetCore\AspNetCore.vcxproj(31,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import>  declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\IISLib\IISLib.vcxproj(28,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\InProcessRequestHandler\InProcessRequestHandler.vcxproj(30,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\OutOfProcessRequestHandler\OutOfProcessRequestHandler.vcxproj(30,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\RequestHandlerLib\RequestHandlerLib.vcxproj(28,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\CommonLibTests\CommonLibTests.vcxproj(30,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the<Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\CommonLib\CommonLib.vcxproj(28,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
F:\Projects\aspnetcore\src\Servers\IIS\AspNetCoreModuleV2\gtest\gtest.vcxproj(31,3): error MSB4019: The imported project "F:\Projects\aspnetcore\.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\v160\Microsoft.Cpp.Default.props" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

Workaround

Can be fixed by copying over those files from a Visual Studio installation, e.g.:

xcopy "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC" ".tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\" /S

[dougbu]

Two possibilities:

1. You do not have at least VS 16.5 with the components listed in the global.json file installed on your Windows machine
2. You were attempting to build between 407b623 (four days ago) and 7efec87 (merged this morning). Though it wasn't documented during that window, builds failed unless you had at least VS 16.7 installed with the same components as above.

Please retry with current HEAD commit after confirming your VS installation is up-to-date.

[softworkz]

Hi @dougbu,

thanks a lot for replying. I'm afraid, neither 1. nor 2. applies.

This happens when building the release/3.1 branch, so it can't be 2.

It occurred on both installations we tried. In both cases it was VS 16.6.

It's unlikely due to an incomplete VS installation, because copying the missing files from the Visual Studio installation to that folder could fix it.

[dougbu]

Ah, sorry, I misread the original description.

Paths like F:\Projects\aspnetcore.tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\ are a clear indication machine does not have a Visual Studio installation with the necessary components. The infrastructure wouldn't fall back to the local (xcopy-able) msbuild installation unless that's the case. See

aspnetcore/global.json

Lines 17 to 24 in 9e63572

	"vs": {
	"version": "16.3",
	"components": [
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64",
	"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Windows10SDK.17134"
	]
	}

for a description of what you need.

You can also look at the options available in eng/scripts/InstallVisualStudio.ps1 to update your particular edition of Visual Studio.

[softworkz]

@dougbu

Hi Doug,

thanks for the explanation, but I'm not sure whether it applies to our (me & my colleague's) case.

Actually we do have the VC components installed, which is why we could fix the problem by copying the missing files from our Visual Studio installation (16.6):

xcopy "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC" ".tools\msbuild\16.3.0-alpha\tools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VC\" /S

[dougbu]

That copy doesn't make the right Windows SDK available to the build and doesn't make it clear your VS installation is complete enough to be used. Windows SDKs are installed under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Kits\10\ExtensionSDKs\ and you should have a couple of directories in there named 10.0.17134.0.

[softworkz]

Oh you're absolutely right - it's the SDK which was not available. It looked like a VS issue..

Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me out!
Kind regards,
softworkz