Why does fatal error "LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\Program.obj'" occur when I compile a C++ project in Visual Studio?

Question

I've created a new C++ project in Visual Studio 2008. No code has been written yet; Only project settings have been changed.

When I compile the project, I receive the following fatal error:

fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\Program.obj'

score 170 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 27 '21 at 06:57

170

This particular issue is caused by specifying a dependency to a lib file that had spaces in its path. The path needs to be surrounded by quotes for the project to compile correctly.

On the Configuration Properties -> Linker -> Input tab of the project’s properties, there is an Additional Dependencies property. This issue was fixed by adding the quotes. For example, changing this property from:

C:\Program Files\sofware sdk\lib\library.lib

To:

"C:\Program Files\sofware sdk\lib\library.lib"

where I added the quotes.

edited Sep 27 '21 at 06:57

Amin Ya

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answered Sep 25 '08 at 14:33

Josh Sklare

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God you've just hanged two day's bug chase to 30 second one :) – jb. May 10 '09 at 21:04
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I had the same problem. If your Linker is correct but your lib directory is set incorrectly the same error may come up. Try looking in **Configuration Properties -> VC++ directories -> Library Directories** to see if you set the library correctly. Sometimes the lib folder consists of a x86 and a x64 folder. You have to set it to one of those (depending on your compiler) rather than the folder containing both. – M4st3rM1nd Apr 28 '13 at 22:56
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Don't forget to put a semicolon after `"C:\Program Files\sofware sdk\lib\library.lib"`. The absence of a `;` will also cause the project to compile incorrectly. – roscioli May 23 '14 at 13:00
1

Had this problem while trying to build OpenCV using Visual Studio 2005 (on Windows 8.1)...and it solved it. Great! – AlainD Nov 07 '14 at 00:28
MasterMind: $(VC_LibraryPath_x86);$(WindowsSDK_LibraryPath_x86); What do I change these to? – user391339 Feb 21 '15 at 05:41
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I tried it and it didn't work to me. **"Qt5Xmld.lib";"Qt5XmlPatternsd.lib";"Qt5Cored.lib";%(AdditionalDependencies)** -What should I chage? – STF Jan 03 '16 at 06:35
At first I thought the separator should be one space, at last I found it should be newline, i.e. one lib one line. – Lei Yang Dec 06 '16 at 08:45
how do i get to the Configuration Properties screen? – FistOfFury Apr 06 '17 at 19:45
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The easiest way to find the guilty path (since C:\Program is of little help) is to check the linker command line arguments. (got to `Property Pages > Configuration Properties > Linker > Command Line`) It helps to copy paste that into a text editor ans search for `"Program "`. – Brandlingo Mar 28 '18 at 07:27
Call me old school, but I never put spaces in anything when programming. It's always either ``camelCased`` or ``spaced_with_underscores``. I like to think that this technique has saved me at least a few dozen headaches through the years. – kmiklas Jan 30 '19 at 16:36
In my case I accidentally erased the ```%``` in front of ```%(CoreLibraryDependencies)``` – Scott Madeux Oct 12 '22 at 08:52

score 76 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:10

76

This can happen if the file is still running as well.

:-1: error: LNK1104: cannot open file 'debug\****.exe'

answered Aug 13 '14 at 16:10

Carol

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this was my problem too! – Kamran Bigdely Nov 18 '14 at 17:35
1

I get this caused by MS Security Essentials keeping the file locked. – Synetech Mar 15 '17 at 22:57
1

yep, closed the previous console window and suddenly the lib could be read. – Kari Mar 02 '19 at 21:43
I signed-out and signed-in again, which worked. Apparently I had no open *.exe file running, and tried restarting VS, with no effect. – Karan Shah Oct 21 '20 at 10:32
I found my ,exe file is open, yet. I close it with task manager. – Kambiz Rostami Feb 07 '21 at 12:34

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 04 '15 at 17:07

17

The problem went away for me after closing and re-opening Visual Studio. Not sure why the problem happened, but that might be worth a shot.

This was on VS 2013 Ultimate, Windows 8.1.

answered Feb 04 '15 at 17:07

Daniel Neel

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ah, Microsoft... Our first try should always be close and reopen (or power off and on) - several mysterious bugs goes away when we do that... – Leonardo Alves Machado Apr 15 '16 at 14:48
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I feel so shameful that this solution can solve my problem. Now, I can't go outside to meet my friends and family anymore. – javaLover May 25 '17 at 10:40
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You had the same problem as Carol. – amod Apr 09 '18 at 16:55

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 26 '15 at 19:11

10

Check also that you don't have this turned on: Configuration Properties -> C/C++ -> Preprocessor -> Preprocess to a File.

answered Dec 26 '15 at 19:11

Assaf Levy

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In my case it was also the issue, yet , what should I do if I do wish to turn this flag on (in order to view the Prepossessed file) ? – Guy Avraham Jun 13 '16 at 15:28
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You've got some workarounds here: [How to output preprocessed code AND compile it (Visual Studio)](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7826243/how-to-output-preprocessed-code-and-compile-it-visual-studio) and here: [Compiling a project (VS 2008) with the /p argument (preprocess to a file) doesn't compile](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3570024/compiling-a-project-vs-2008-with-the-p-argument-preprocess-to-a-file-doesn). But essentially it's a compiler option so it will do either but not both. – Assaf Levy Jun 14 '16 at 17:39

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 22 '15 at 09:51

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My problem was a missing .lib extension, I was just linking against mylib and VS decided to look for mylib.obj.

answered Dec 22 '15 at 09:51

Patrizio Bertoni

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score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 26 '13 at 05:20

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I had the same problem.It caused by a "," in the name of a folder of additional library path.It solved by changing the additional library path.

answered Sep 26 '13 at 05:20

harsini

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Lissandro · Answer 7 · 2016-12-30T10:24:21.483

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Solution 1 (for my case): restart windows Explorer process (yes, the windows file manager).

Solution 2:

Close Visual Studio. Windows Logoff
Logon, reopen Visual Studio
Build as usual. It now builds and can access the problematic file.

I presume sometimes the file system or whoever is controlling it gets lost with its permissions. Before restarting the windows session, tried to kill zombie msbuild32.exe processes, restart visual studio, check none even showing the problem file on. No build configuration issues. It happens now and then. Some internal thing in Windows does not fix up, needs a restart.

edited Dec 30 '16 at 10:24

answered Dec 30 '16 at 09:27

Lissandro

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I had this problem with VS2019... this fixed it... amazing that bugs persist. thx – JHBonarius Jun 10 '20 at 18:31

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 13 '14 at 19:54

3

In my case it was a matter of a mis-directed reference. Project referenced the output of another project but the latter did not output the file where the former was looking for.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 19:54

Newtopian

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 07 '16 at 06:16

3

I had the same problem, but solution for my case is not listed in answers. My antivirus program (AVG) determined file MyProg.exe as a virus and put it into the 'virus storehouse'. You need to check this storehouse and if file is there - then just restore it. It helped me out.

answered Jun 07 '16 at 06:16

Nazarii Plebanskii

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same here! BitDefender is blocking the access to the file. – Kintaro May 30 '23 at 13:16

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 19 '16 at 11:22

I had the same error, just with a Nuget package i had installed (one that is not header only) and then tried to uninstall.
What was wrong for me was that i was still including a header for the package i just uninstalled in one of my .cpp files (pretty silly, yes).
I even removed the additional library directories link to it in Project -> Properties -> Linker -> General, but of course to no avail since i was still trying to reference the non-existent header.

Definitely a confusing error message in this case, since the header name was <boost/filesystem.hpp> but the error gave me "cannot open file 'llibboost_filesystem-vc140-mt-gd-1_59.lib'" and no line numbers or anything.

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Dec 08 '20 at 09:09

in my case it was the path lenght (incl. file name).

..\..\..\..\..\..\..\SWX\Binary\VS2008\Output\Win32\Debug\boost_unit_test_framework-vc90-mt-gd-1_57.lib;

as for the release the path was (this has worked correctly):

..\..\..\..\..\..\..\SWX\Binary\VS2008\Output\Win32\Release\boost_unit_test_framework-vc90-mt-1_57.lib;

==> one char shorter.

i have also verified this by renaming the lib file (using shorter name) and changing this in the

Linker -> input -> additoinal dependencies

i have also verified this by adding absolut path instead of relative path as all those ".." has extended the path string, too. this has also worked.

so the problem for me was the total size of the path + filename string was too long!

+1 for this, beware of the 260 character Windows path length limit that can easily be reached when complicated toolchains start creating temporary files inside of temporary directories inside of well-nested project folders. — Boston Walker, Aug 25 '22 at 01:12

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 13 '21 at 11:44

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I had a similar problem. I solved it with the following command to kill the running task:

taskkill /f /im [nameOfExe]

/f: Forces the task to close. /im: The next parameter is a image name aka executable name e.g. Program.exe.

answered Sep 13 '21 at 11:44

Marci

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 16 '14 at 00:26

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For an assembly project (ProjectName -> Build Dependencies -> Build Customizations -> masm (selected)), setting Generate Preprocessed Source Listing to True caused the problem for me too, clearing the setting fixed it. VS2013 here.

answered Nov 16 '14 at 00:26

MadeOfAir

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score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Dec 04 '14 at 21:58

I run into the same problem with linker complaining about the main executable missing. This happened during our solution port to the new Visual Studio 2013. The solution is a varied mix of managed and un-managed projects/code. The problem (and fix) ended up being a missing app.config file in the solution folder. Took a day to figure this one out :(, as output log was not very helpful.

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Dec 19 '14 at 16:07

I checked all my settings according to this list: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ts7eyw4s.aspx#feedback . It is helpful to me and for my situation, I find out that Link Dependency of projects' properties has double-quote, which should not be there.

easuter · Answer 16 · 2015-11-23T01:26:36.977

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I'm answering because I don't see this particular solution listed by anyone else.

Apparently my antivirus (Ad-Aware) was flagging a DLL one of my projects depends on, and deleting it. Even after excluding the directory where the DLL lives, the same behaviour continued until I restarted my computer.

edited Nov 23 '15 at 01:26

answered Nov 23 '15 at 01:13

easuter

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Feb 04 '17 at 23:51

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In my case, I had replaced math library files from a previous Game Engine Graphics course with GLM. The problem was that I didn't add them to the project within Visual Studio's Solution Explorer (even though they were in the project repository).

answered Feb 04 '17 at 23:51

Artorias2718

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score 0 · Answer 18 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

I had this issue in conjunction with the LNK2038 error, followed this post to segregate the RELEASE and the DEBUG DLLs. In this process I had cleaned up the whole folder where these dependencies were residing.

Luckily I had a backup of all these files, and got the file for which this error was throwing back into the DEBUG folder to resolve the issue. The error code was misleading in some way as I had to spend a lot of time to come to this tip from one of the answers from this post again.

Hope this answer, helps someone in need.

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered May 31 '17 at 18:20

0

I solved it by adding an existing project to my solution, which I forgot to add in the first time.

answered May 31 '17 at 18:20

Markus Weber

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score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Oct 25 '17 at 18:31

I had the same error:

fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'GTest.lib;'

This was caused by the ; at the end. If you have multiple libraries, they should be separated by empty space (spacebar), no comma or semi-colons!

So don't use ; or any anything else when listing libraries in Project properties >> Configuration Properties >> Linker >> Input

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 20 '19 at 06:20

0

I tried above solution but didnt work for me. So i rename the exe and rebuild the solution. It works for me.

answered Nov 20 '19 at 06:20

user3500315

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score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 22:14

I had this exact error when building a VC++ DLL in Visual Studio 2019:

LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\Program.obj'

Turned out under project Properties > Linker > Input > Module Definition File, I had specified a def file that had an unmatched double-quote at the end of the filename. Deleting the unmatched double quote resolved the issue.

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Jul 16 '20 at 11:09

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Killed msbuild32.exe and built again. It worked for me.

answered Jul 16 '20 at 11:09

Imad

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Sep 13 '20 at 01:32

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My issue was caused by other application using the .dll file I was trying to debug.

Closing the application that was using the .dll solved it for me.

answered Sep 13 '20 at 01:32

NAGA

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered May 30 '21 at 19:09

Possible solutions:

Check if path contain any white spaces, Go to Properties > Linker > Input > additional path and include "path with white space"
If program are still running, close everything and restart.
Check if .obj file is not created. This happens when you directly build a project while Properties > C++ > Preprocessor > Generate preprocessor file is on. Turn it off and build the project then you can onn Properties > C++ > Preprocessor > Generate preprocessor file.

score -1 · Answer 26 · answered Nov 14 '18 at 05:25

-1

I hit the same problem with "Visual Studio 2013".

LNK1104: cannot open file 'debug\****.exe

It resolved after closing and re-starting Visual studio.

answered Nov 14 '18 at 05:25

user3860869

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score -4 · Answer 27 · answered Sep 14 '17 at 10:19

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I was having the same problem , I have just copied the code to new project and started the build . Some other error started coming. error C4996: 'fopen': This function or variable may be unsafe. Consider using fopen_s instead

To solve this problem again, I have added my one property in the Project project as below. Project -> Properties -> Configuration property -> c/c++ . In this category there is field name Preprocessor Definitions I have added _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS this to solve the problem Hope it will help ...

Thank You

answered Sep 14 '17 at 10:19

Sunil

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This answer has no relation with theoriginal post. – zar Oct 25 '17 at 18:14
Not to mention disabling the security features is not exactly a good idea – Matti Virkkunen Jan 10 '20 at 13:49

Why does fatal error "LNK1104: cannot open file 'C:\Program.obj'" occur when I compile a C++ project in Visual Studio?

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