Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Cannot access x.y.z.dll because it is being used by another process

Spent a while today trying to figure out why I couldn't run an app, which kept giving me the build error that a dll was being used by another process. I found this super nice tip which can help avoid a bunch of procmon/etc fiddling:

1. open a command line
2. go to the directory containing your locked dll
3. >tasklist /m my.locked.dll

via http://edwin.vriethoff.net/2009/01/26/find-out-which-process-is-locking-a-dll-without-extra-tools/

Monday, November 18, 2013

[TestMethod] public static void IAmInvisible()

Just spent a little time debugging some MSTests I was trying to add to a project, which just weren't showing up in the Test Explorer. Most of the 'help these tests don't show up' info out there is because someone is trying to add a new project, but in this case I was adding a new class to an existing project.

Eventually I tried adding a new set of tests identical to some working tests, and editing them bit by bit to look like my failing ones. Perhaps it should have been more obvious, but the offending difference was that I had marked the new tests as Static - that doesn't seem to be allowed, and I can't even find that restriction mentioned anywhere. I guess most people never try it?