DLL Building in VS2012 - no DLL file appears

Question

In VS 2012, I start a DLL library project, add some code, hit Build and no DLL appears.

I know there are similar questions here on SO about the same topic, however

1. I have checked the output folder (set to the implicit *$(SolutionDir)$(Configuration)*)
2. Have not confused Debug and Release
3. etc..

The output folder does contain something after the build - a .lastbuildstate file and a .log file.

The content of the .lastbuildstate file is

#v4.0:v110:false
Debug|Win32|D:\Desktop\newOne\|

while the contents of the .log file is

Build started 16.10.2014 12:28:52.
     1>Project "D:\Desktop\newOne\newOne.vcxproj" on node 2 (Build target(s)).
     1>InitializeBuildStatus:
         Creating "Debug\newOne.unsuccessfulbuild" because "AlwaysCreate" was specified.
       FinalizeBuildStatus:
         Deleting file "Debug\newOne.unsuccessfulbuild".
         Touching "Debug\newOne.lastbuildstate".
     1>Done Building Project "D:\Desktop\newOne\newOne.vcxproj" (Build target(s)).

Build succeeded.

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.02

I tried to create another DLL project from scratch, with the same code, and the result is the same.

Any help is much appreciated.

Daniel

Answer 1

Well in most cases people do look in the wrong directories (like in this issue) but usually the build log states the outputs but your log seems to be empty. What I would advice:

1) Check if your dll actually exports any symbols (functions/classes) - I am not actually sure if VS2012 generates the dll depending on the presence of exported symbols, but still

2) If you are build the whole solution not just the project check that the DLL project is actually marked to be built (a small chance but still)

UPDATE

I checked that symbol exports do not affect the producing of a dll - I set up an empty project and added some functions that are not exported and still got a normal build log:

1>------ Build started: Project: EmptyDllTest, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>  Source.cpp
1>  EmptyDllTest.vcxproj -> c:\users\user\documents\visual studio 2012\Projects\EmptyDllTest\Debug\EmptyDllTest.dll
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========

I can reproduce the log you have only with a totally empty solution. Any chances that for some reason you have not added the source files to the project or they are excluded?