Custom attributes are not consistent???

[Bret Pehrson]

I've converted a non-trivial C++ library to managed, and get the following
unhelpful linker error:

Assignment.obj : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (80131195) : Custom
attributes are not consistent: (0x0c0001a5).
Display.obj : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (80131195) : Custom
attributes are not consistent: (0x0c000108).
The help for LNK2022 is completely useless:

metadata operation failed (HRESULT) : error_message

The linker detected an error while merging metadata. The metadata errors must
be resolved to link successfully.

One reason for LNK2022 is when a struct exists in multiple modules with the
same name, but with conflicting definitions, and when you compile with /clr.
<<

A search for "Custom attributes are not consistent" at MS turns up *NO*
results, and google/google groups only returns a few -- none of which really
discuss the problem or it (eventual?) solution.

In this case, I've looked over the source file, and there are no mystery
structs floating around, although my searches are far from definitive as the
project is composed of hundreds of inter-related files/headers.

Has *ANYONE* figured out or would MS care to elaborate on what the "Custom
attributes are not consistent" error means and what the final hex number
means? Apparently it has some dynamic value, as similar errors have different
values.

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]]

Hello Bret,

Thanks for posting in the group.

Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++
library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
(80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the
problem.

I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the
hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report before. So
we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.

In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a small
repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed information
here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here.

I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to
isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you contact
our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer specially
help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to
post here and I will post back with detailed information.

If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here. Thanks
very much and look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Bret Pehrson]

Hmmm...

(I'm presuming that you work for/at Microsoft, or have internal contact w/ MS.)

Could you contact the compiler group and have them document the metadata
"Custom
attributes are not consistent" error?

Thanks

"Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:

Hello Bret,

Thanks for posting in the group.

Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++
library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
(80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the
problem.

I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the
hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report before. So
we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.

In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a small
repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed information
here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here.

I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to
isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you contact
our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer specially
help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to
post here and I will post back with detailed information.

If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here. Thanks
very much and look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Ronald Laeremans [MSFT]]

In the Whidbey release the linker will give better diagnostics.

For now the way to diagnose this is using ildasm to dump the metadata of the
..obj files to text and then search for the tokens (the hex numbers mentioned
in the error messages). Usually this is a source error where 2 translation
units define a type in a different way.

Ronald Laeremans
Visual C++ team

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...

Hmmm...

(I'm presuming that you work for/at Microsoft, or have internal contact w/ MS.)
Could you contact the compiler group and have them document the metadata
"Custom
attributes are not consistent" error?

Thanks

"Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:

Hello Bret,

Thanks for posting in the group.

Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++
library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
(80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the
problem.

I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report before. So we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.

In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a small repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed information
here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here.

I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you contact our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer specially
help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to
post here and I will post back with detailed information.

If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here. Thanks very much and look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

rights.
--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Bret Pehrson]

Ronald -- thanks for the reply. (Please note, none of my comments are meant as
a personal attack on you.)

In the Whidbey release the linker will give better diagnostics.
I still stand by my previous post where I say it will be at least the 4th
release of the product before it is truly usable in a commercial environment.
For now the way to diagnose this is using ildasm to dump the metadata of the
.obj files to text and then search for the tokens (the hex numbers mentioned
in the error messages). Usually this is a source error where 2 translation
units define a type in a different way.
Thanks for defining the mystery error. I was *finally* able to find the source
of the problem and resolve it using the technique you describe -- thanks. My
comments follow for the purpose of actually documenting the procedure:

First, ILDASM is a mixed-mode application meaning that it has a GUI-mode and
console-mode interface.

When running in GUI mode, you *CANNOT* process .obj files (the only files that
are documented are .exe and .dll). This means that you must use the tool from
the command line (with the appropriate vars set through vsvars32.bat or by
running "Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt" from the VS.NET start menu
tools group).

When processing .obj files from the command line, YOU MUST REDIRECT THE OUTPUT
TO A FILE or else you will get no results - BUG! BUG! Additionally, you must
use the /text option to force output to the console. So, it boils down to:

ildasm your_source_fil e.obj /text /out=output.txt

The file output.txt is then created -- open it up and then search for the token
in question (the last hex number of the "Custom attributes are not consistent"
error. (NOTE: the output token identifiers *DO NOT* prefix hex numbers w/ the
traditional 0x -- so take this into account when searching for the token.)
This will locate the custom attribute of the token that is causing the error.
Once you know the token, it should be relatively easy to locate the actual
source of the problem.

So, presuming the following errors:

Assignment.obj : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (80131195) : Custom
attributes are not consistent: (0x0c0001a5).

The steps would be:

ildasm Assignment.obj /text /out=assignment. txt

Search assignment.txt for "0c0001a5". It should find some custom attribute,
look up a few lines and locate the offending type. Armed with that, you can go
back to your source files and determine why the type (class/struct) is being
defined differently in the different source files.

NOTE TO MICROSOFT: Fix this stupid diagnostic! At the *BARE MINIMUM*, the
offending TYPE and ATTRIBUTE should be displayed *BY NAME* -- hex tokens in
diagnostics went out w/ Lattice C compilers and powdered wigs, they have
*ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS IN A 7TH-PLUS GENERATION PRODUCT*


Ronald Laeremans
Visual C++ team

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...

Hmmm...

(I'm presuming that you work for/at Microsoft, or have internal contact w/

MS.)

Could you contact the compiler group and have them document the metadata
"Custom
attributes are not consistent" error?

Thanks

"Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:

Hello Bret,

Thanks for posting in the group.

Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++
library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
(80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the
problem.

I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report before. So we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.

In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a small repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed information
here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here.

I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you contact our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer specially
help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to
post here and I will post back with detailed information.

If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here. Thanks very much and look forward to your response.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

rights.

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]]

Hello Bret,

Thanks very much for your feedback and sharing your experience in how to
isolate the problem in the community. I am glad that Ronald's suggestion
help resolve the problem.

We will redirect your feedback to the product team. We are looking at
continual improvement, and it's this kind of feedback that let's us know
what things you're trying to do, that we haven't yet exposed for you.

If there is any any other feedback on our product, you can go to
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish...=EN-US&gssnb=1
to submit it.

For the usage of ildsam.exe, we can see it from MSDN:
Option Description
/output:filename Creates an output file with the specified filename, rather
than displaying the results in a dialog box.
/text Displays the results to the console window, rather than in a dialog
box or as an output file.
/? Displays the command syntax and options for the tool.

So the command string that you used is correct.

Thanks again for participating the community.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Bret Pehrson]

> So the command string that you used is correct.

Right, but my point was that if you omit the /output=filename flag, you get
*NO* output (other than the header) to the console. That is a bug.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'll be glad to see these fixes in your product,
although I'd *much* rather have a service pack rather than wait for the next
point release.
"Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:

Hello Bret,

Thanks very much for your feedback and sharing your experience in how to
isolate the problem in the community. I am glad that Ronald's suggestion
help resolve the problem.

We will redirect your feedback to the product team. We are looking at
continual improvement, and it's this kind of feedback that let's us know
what things you're trying to do, that we haven't yet exposed for you.

If there is any any other feedback on our product, you can go to
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish...=EN-US&gssnb=1
to submit it.

For the usage of ildsam.exe, we can see it from MSDN:
Option Description
/output:filename Creates an output file with the specified filename, rather
than displaying the results in a dialog box.
/text Displays the results to the console window, rather than in a dialog
box or as an output file.
/? Displays the command syntax and options for the tool.

So the command string that you used is correct.

Thanks again for participating the community.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]]

Hi Bret,

Right, but my point was that if you omit the /output=filename flag, you get
*NO* output (other than the header) to the console. That is a bug.

Got it. I will repro it on my side and report to product group.

Thanks very much for participating the community. If there is any we can do
for you, please feel free to post new messages in the group.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Community Support

Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

[Ronald Laeremans [MSFT]]

Hi Bret,

I agree that the linker error you get in the VC 7.1 release is very far from
ideal. You are seeing some growing pains of fitting a separate compilation
model language like C++ into the CLR environment. We knew this issue going
into the release of VC 7.1, but the code base we had worked with compiling
to IJW internally and from the early adopters we got most feedback from
didn't have a large number of occurrences of this issue, so we traded
improving this off for other priority fixes. Subsequent experience both
internally and externally has shown it to be quite prevalent though. We have
been working on getting a KB out on this. I'll check on the status of that.

I am also sorry for my _very_ terse explanation on how to use ildasm and I
am glad you still were able to figure it out. We'll make sure your comments
on ildasm get to the author of that tool.

Ronald

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...

Ronald -- thanks for the reply. (Please note, none of my comments are meant as a personal attack on you.)

In the Whidbey release the linker will give better diagnostics.
I still stand by my previous post where I say it will be at least the 4th
release of the product before it is truly usable in a commercial

environment.

For now the way to diagnose this is using ildasm to dump the metadata of the .obj files to text and then search for the tokens (the hex numbers mentioned in the error messages). Usually this is a source error where 2 translation units define a type in a different way.
Thanks for defining the mystery error. I was *finally* able to find the

source of the problem and resolve it using the technique you describe -- thanks. My comments follow for the purpose of actually documenting the procedure:

First, ILDASM is a mixed-mode application meaning that it has a GUI-mode and console-mode interface.

When running in GUI mode, you *CANNOT* process .obj files (the only files that are documented are .exe and .dll). This means that you must use the tool from the command line (with the appropriate vars set through vsvars32.bat or by
running "Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt" from the VS.NET start menu tools group).

When processing .obj files from the command line, YOU MUST REDIRECT THE OUTPUT TO A FILE or else you will get no results - BUG! BUG! Additionally, you must use the /text option to force output to the console. So, it boils down to:
ildasm your_source_fil e.obj /text /out=output.txt

The file output.txt is then created -- open it up and then search for the token in question (the last hex number of the "Custom attributes are not consistent" error. (NOTE: the output token identifiers *DO NOT* prefix hex numbers w/ the traditional 0x -- so take this into account when searching for the token.)
This will locate the custom attribute of the token that is causing the error. Once you know the token, it should be relatively easy to locate the actual
source of the problem.

So, presuming the following errors:

Assignment.obj : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (80131195) : Custom attributes are not consistent: (0x0c0001a5).

The steps would be:

ildasm Assignment.obj /text /out=assignment. txt

Search assignment.txt for "0c0001a5". It should find some custom attribute, look up a few lines and locate the offending type. Armed with that, you can go back to your source files and determine why the type (class/struct) is being defined differently in the different source files.

NOTE TO MICROSOFT: Fix this stupid diagnostic! At the *BARE MINIMUM*, the offending TYPE and ATTRIBUTE should be displayed *BY NAME* -- hex tokens in diagnostics went out w/ Lattice C compilers and powdered wigs, they have
*ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS IN A 7TH-PLUS GENERATION PRODUCT*

Ronald Laeremans
Visual C++ team

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...

Hmmm...

(I'm presuming that you work for/at Microsoft, or have internal contact w/

MS.)

Could you contact the compiler group and have them document the

metadata "Custom
attributes are not consistent" error?

Thanks

"Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:
>
> Hello Bret,
>
> Thanks for posting in the group.
>
> Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++ > library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
> project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
> (80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the > problem.
>
> I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the

> hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report

before. So

> we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.
>
> In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a small

> repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed

information > here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here. >
> I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to

> isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you

contact

> our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer

specially > help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to > post here and I will post back with detailed information.
>
> If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here.

Thanks

> very much and look forward to your response.
>
> Best regards,
> Yanhong Huang
> Microsoft Community Support
>
> Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no

rights.

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence

<<38952rglkwdsl >>
--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

[Bret Pehrson]

Ronald -- thanks for the response & comments. I (as well as others) appreciate
the insight that you provide on the reasons for the issues, as well as a
commitment to clarify/resolve/fix the issue.

I've got to tell you, I'm *very* impressed w/ the response that I've been
getting to my issues from Microsoft. I've been out of the newsgroup community
for the past couple of years, but before I left, typical MS response to just
about any issue was: "That is a known issue and will be fixed in a future
release. <end>". It is readily apparent that you all have made a concerted
commitment to better handle issues, questions, and comments through the
newsgroups, and it is greatly appreciated.

Bret

"Ronald Laeremans [MSFT]" wrote:

Hi Bret,

I agree that the linker error you get in the VC 7.1 release is very far from
ideal. You are seeing some growing pains of fitting a separate compilation
model language like C++ into the CLR environment. We knew this issue going
into the release of VC 7.1, but the code base we had worked with compiling
to IJW internally and from the early adopters we got most feedback from
didn't have a large number of occurrences of this issue, so we traded
improving this off for other priority fixes. Subsequent experience both
internally and externally has shown it to be quite prevalent though. We have
been working on getting a KB out on this. I'll check on the status of that.

I am also sorry for my _very_ terse explanation on how to use ildasm and I
am glad you still were able to figure it out. We'll make sure your comments
on ildasm get to the author of that tool.

Ronald

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...

Ronald -- thanks for the reply. (Please note, none of my comments are

meant as

a personal attack on you.)

In the Whidbey release the linker will give better diagnostics.

I still stand by my previous post where I say it will be at least the 4th
release of the product before it is truly usable in a commercial

environment.

For now the way to diagnose this is using ildasm to dump the metadata of the .obj files to text and then search for the tokens (the hex numbers mentioned in the error messages). Usually this is a source error where 2 translation units define a type in a different way.

Thanks for defining the mystery error. I was *finally* able to find the

source

of the problem and resolve it using the technique you describe -- thanks.

My

comments follow for the purpose of actually documenting the procedure:

First, ILDASM is a mixed-mode application meaning that it has a GUI-mode

and

console-mode interface.

When running in GUI mode, you *CANNOT* process .obj files (the only files

that

are documented are .exe and .dll). This means that you must use the tool

from

the command line (with the appropriate vars set through vsvars32.bat or by
running "Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt" from the VS.NET start

menu

tools group).

When processing .obj files from the command line, YOU MUST REDIRECT THE

OUTPUT

TO A FILE or else you will get no results - BUG! BUG! Additionally, you

must

use the /text option to force output to the console. So, it boils down

to:

ildasm your_source_fil e.obj /text /out=output.txt

The file output.txt is then created -- open it up and then search for the

token

in question (the last hex number of the "Custom attributes are not

consistent"

error. (NOTE: the output token identifiers *DO NOT* prefix hex numbers w/

the

traditional 0x -- so take this into account when searching for the token.)
This will locate the custom attribute of the token that is causing the

error.

Once you know the token, it should be relatively easy to locate the actual
source of the problem.

So, presuming the following errors:

Assignment.obj : error LNK2022: metadata operation failed (80131195) :

Custom

attributes are not consistent: (0x0c0001a5).

The steps would be:

ildasm Assignment.obj /text /out=assignment. txt

Search assignment.txt for "0c0001a5". It should find some custom

attribute,

look up a few lines and locate the offending type. Armed with that, you

can go

back to your source files and determine why the type (class/struct) is

being

defined differently in the different source files.

NOTE TO MICROSOFT: Fix this stupid diagnostic! At the *BARE MINIMUM*,

the

offending TYPE and ATTRIBUTE should be displayed *BY NAME* -- hex tokens

in

diagnostics went out w/ Lattice C compilers and powdered wigs, they have
*ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS IN A 7TH-PLUS GENERATION PRODUCT*

Ronald Laeremans
Visual C++ team

"Bret Pehrson" <br**@infowest. com> wrote in message
news:40******** *******@infowes t.com...
> Hmmm...
>
> (I'm presuming that you work for/at Microsoft, or have internal contact w/ MS.)
>
> Could you contact the compiler group and have them document the metadata > "Custom
> attributes are not consistent" error?
>
> Thanks
>
> "Yan-Hong Huang[MSFT]" wrote:
> >
> > Hello Bret,
> >
> > Thanks for posting in the group.
> >
> > Based on my understanding, the problem is: You are migrating an old C++ > > library project to managed C++ project. However, when you build the
> > project, you got several error LNK2022: metadata operation failed
> > (80131195) link error. Please let me know if I have misunderstood the > > problem.
> >
> > I searched in our database immediately when I saw your post. Unluckily, the
> > hits are small. And it seems that there were no similar report before. So
> > we can't tell exactly where the problem may reside now.
> >
> > In order to troubleshoot the problem, could you please provide us a
small
> > repro sample? We will look into it and reply with detailed information > > here. You can reach me by removing online from my email address here. > >
> > I understand that C++ library is not trivial. Perhaps it is hard for you to
> > isolate the problem or create a repro sample. If so, I suggest you
contact
> > our PSS (product support service) to have one support engineer specially > > help you on it. If you need help on contacting PSS, please feel free to > > post here and I will post back with detailed information.
> >
> > If you have any more concerns on it, please feel free to post here.
Thanks
> > very much and look forward to your response.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Yanhong Huang
> > Microsoft Community Support
> >
> > Get Secure! ¨C www.microsoft.com/security
> > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
>
> --
> Bret Pehrson
> mailto:br**@inf owest.com
> NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence

<<38952rglkwdsl >>

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>

--
Bret Pehrson
mailto:br**@inf owest.com
NOSPAM - Include this key in all e-mail correspondence <<38952rglkwdsl >>