Locking files during CMake build causing linker errors

[sandercox]

Type: Bug

I'm not exactly sure what is causing this but I and some of my collegues are experiencing issues where our CMake based project has issues trying to link.

Errors like:

LINK : fatal error LNK1168: cannot open PathTo\MyTestDll.dll for writing

We can just hit build again and normally the file then compiles but we have many targets and the issues occurs multiple time before having done a complete build. The process is highly annoying.

I think it's a VS Code issue because

• it doesn't happen when VS Code is not open and I invoke the compile on commandline
• it doesn't happen with vscode 1.95.3 (running from an unzipped folder, with the same extensions from my installed 1.96.2 build)
• it does happen with 1.96.2 (haven't tested other 1.96 releases)
• it still happens with the Insiders build (running from an unzipped folder)

VS Code version: Code - Insiders 1.97.0-insider (b7b6f26, 2025-01-09T13:17:31.863Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7970X 32-Cores (64 x 4000)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	127.50GB (94.79GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 4c4b6a3e-b9e8-407b-ba1b-f3b8c1defad1
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (41)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
crates-io	Bar	0.7.3
better-phpunit	cal	1.6.2
multi-cursor-case-preserve	Car	1.0.5
vscode-innosetup	cho	1.9.3
vscode-test-explorer-status-bar	con	1.2.0
gdb-debug	Dam	1.0.7
javascript-ejs-support	Dig	1.3.3
gitlens	eam	16.1.1
EditorConfig	Edi	0.16.4
prettier-vscode	esb	11.0.0
vscode-diff	fab	2.1.2
dependi	fil	0.7.13
cmake-test-adapter	fre	0.17.4
copilot	Git	1.256.1304
copilot-chat	Git	0.24.2025010901
remotehub	Git	0.64.0
vscode-github-actions	git	0.27.0
vscode-test-explorer	hbe	2.22.1
better-cpp-syntax	jef	1.27.1
vscode-docker	ms-	1.29.3
remote-ssh	ms-	0.116.1
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.87.0
remote-wsl	ms-	0.88.5
azure-repos	ms-	0.40.0
cmake-tools	ms-	1.19.52
cpptools	ms-	1.23.2
hexeditor	ms-	1.11.1
live-server	ms-	0.4.15
powershell	ms-	2024.4.0
remote-explorer	ms-	0.4.3
remote-repositories	ms-	0.42.0
test-adapter-converter	ms-	0.2.1
vsliveshare	ms-	1.0.5948
wgsl	Pol	0.1.17
vscode-phpunit	rec	3.5.16
rust-analyzer	rus	0.3.2257
vscode-coverage-gutters	rya	2.12.0
tauri-vscode	tau	0.2.9
cmake	twx	0.0.17
vscode-lldb	vad	1.11.1
clang-format	xav	1.9.0

[sandercox]

Personal work around seems to be o locate the work folder outside of workspace adding:

  "cmake.buildDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/../${workspaceFolderBasename}-build",

to my VSCode settings.json