Visual C++ 2010 "Cannot find file specified"

[AceDawg45]

Okay, I know someone will say "Google before asking", but I did. I couldn't find anything, so here I am.

Well, when I try to run the program (new to VC++, I click the green arrow next to "Debug" in the toolbar, right) and I get a message box - code builds without errors - but the debugger says: "Unable to start program 'c:users/sal/documents/visual studio 2010/Projects/SFML App/Debug/SFML App.exe Cannot find file specified"

well, I go to the directory it says, and nothing is even in the Debug file. Is it building wrong? I apologize in advance if this isn't clear enough, it's late and I am tired...

[Disch]

It doesn't sound like it's building at all. Did you actually build it?


More than likely.. you just went to "new file" to create you file.. rather than "Project | Add New File". The former just create a file but will not add it to the project. If you don't add it to the project, it won't get built when you try to build your program.


Go in the Project menu... then select "Add Existing Item". Then select your cpp file. That will add it to the project (you should see it in the solution explorer on the side-bar).


Once you do that... rebuild. Then it should work (assuming it builds without error).


For all future cpp files... do not go to File | new file. Instead go to Project | Add new item.

[AceDawg45]

Thanks for the advice on that, but unfortunately that wasn't the problem.
I just made a default Win32 project, and that won't work. The build button is the green arrow, right? I am new to VC++

[ajh32]

When you hit the "green button" it will build if you have changed anything in your project since the last successful build, and then run in debug mode. To just build the project see the "Build" menu and you should see a menu item labelled "Build <your project name>" and "Rebuild <your project name>"

If you cannot even build a project created from a template, then I suggest you try re-installing VS 2010.

[AceDawg45]

When I build it, the console says
"Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped"

Does this mean one of the files are wrong?

[ajh32]

Look at the error list, see tabs at the bottom of the IDE or look at the View menu for "Error List", then let us know what it shows for the 1 error you have.

[AceDawg45]

>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\Microsoft.CppBuild.targets(1029,5): error MSB3191: Unable to create directory "C:\Users\Sal\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SFML App\SFML App\ C:\Users\Sal\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SFML App\Debug". The given path's format is not supported.

That is the only error in the build console. What is that supposed to mean?

[ajh32]

Looks like you don't have permissions on the path specified in the error to create the directory. I would suggest you move your projects to a sub-folder off of the root of the C:\ drive, i.e. C:\Development\

[coder777]

Your path is malformed:

C:\Users\Sal\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SFML App\SFML App\ C:\Users\Sal\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SFML App\Debug

'C:\' appears twice

[AceDawg45]

Oh... Yeah that was a typo on my part. My bad. Here is the directory:

C:\Users\Sal\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\SFML App\Debug

Well, I will try moving it. Do you know how I set the project place in VC++?

[coder777]

Do you know how I set the project place in VC++?

Read this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165410.aspx

You can also right click on your project.