Side by Side manifest issue with VS2005 & VS2008 - 【StackMirror】|c++|visual-studio-2008|visual-studio-2005|manifest|side-by-side

I have a C++ project I am building in VS2008. This project also links against a library (DLL + Import lib) that was built using VS2005 and thus loads VS2005 debug CRT library (everything is a debug build).

When attempting to run this executable built in VS2008, I get an error on loading due to that VS2005 DLL not finding the Debug CRT libraries, even though I have VS2005 installed with SP1. I've checked Windows updates too, so I'm not really sure what more I can do.

How do I diagnose this problem? I've looked at the Event Viewer in Windows and noticed that it can't find the debug VC80 CRT library, but that's all I know. There's a version mismatch somewhere in here I guess, I just don't know how to fix it since I don't know much about this manifest/side-by-side stuff.

The OS I'm building on is Windows XP 32-bit. I have VS2008 SP1 and VS2005 SP1 installed (so all debug manifests/CRT dlls should be available)

2012-04-04 01:54
by void.pointer

Do I understand this correctly that you have an executable A that uses VS2k8 dynamic libs, and a DLL B that uses VS2k5 dynamic libs? Lib mismatches are likely not going to fly - user7116 2012-04-04 02:06

@sixlettervariables: That's correct. But it should work (and does work on a Windows 7 machine). But I'm trying to setup my environment and get it working on a Windows XP machine (same code, same DLLs) and it's just not working. I've gotten it to work on Windows XP before, but it's difficult to get consistent results. It seems like the slightest difference in Windows updates causes everything to break - void.pointer 2012-04-04 02:18

I've had a lot of trouble with similar setups. It's better to either include the original required DLLs (not the full CRT) and best to rebuild in the same CRT from the sources - MPelletier 2012-04-04 02:20

@MPelletier I'm not sure what you mean - void.pointer 2012-04-04 02:34

Sorry, I missed a part. It's a debug build. I was thinking release. I'm tired... Even so, if you have the source for your VS2005 project, it will be less of a hassle to rebuild it than to get it to work in VS2008 - MPelletier 2012-04-04 02:38

You cannot deploy a program that has a dependency on the debug CRT, it will only be available when the machine has VS installed. You also really want to avoid having one program using multiple versions of the CRT, it can cause hard to diagnose memory corruption and leaks. You will need to rebuild the DLL - Hans Passant 2012-04-04 05:01

@HansPassant I'm not deploying the application with debug CRT, I am on a development machine with VS2005 and VS2008 installed, trying to get the application running in the VS2008 debugger - void.pointer 2012-04-04 23:18

I get an error on loading due to that VS2005 DLL not finding the Debug CRT libraries You might want to take notice of the machine applying the 2x4 to your forehead. No me, just the machine - Hans Passant 2012-04-04 23:23

Learn to check or create or check appropriate assembly manifests.

Here is more info once you get that done.

On Windows XP, if an external manifest is present in the application's local folder, the operating system loader uses this manifest instead of a manifest embedded inside the binary. On Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Windows, the opposite is true—the external manifest is ignored and the embedded manifest is used when present.

2012-04-04 03:29
by Jirka Hanika