An internal failure occurred while running MSBuild: No such file or directory

Question

I'm seeing the following error when running dotnet build of my solution in a Concourse Docker container. The same image works fine locally and the output of dotnet --info is identical, with the exception of "arm64" vs "amd64".

Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.7.2+b60ddb6f4 for .NET
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Determining projects to restore...
  All projects are up-to-date for restore.

Build succeeded.
    0 Warning(s)
    0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:01.03
MSBUILD : error MSB1025: An internal failure occurred while running MSBuild.
Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeFailedToLaunchException: No such file or directory
 ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): No such file or directory
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(String filename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean redirectStdin, Boolean redirectStdout, Boolean redirectStderr, Boolean setCredentials, UInt32 userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProcBase.LaunchNode(String msbuildLocation, String commandLineArgs)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProcBase.LaunchNode(String msbuildLocation, String commandLineArgs)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProcBase.GetNode(String msbuildLocation, String commandLineArgs, Int32 nodeId, INodePacketFactory factory, Int64 hostHandshake, Int64 clientHandshake, NodeContextTerminateDelegate terminateNode)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProc.CreateNode(Int32 nodeId, INodePacketFactory factory, NodeConfiguration configuration)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeManager.AttemptCreateNode(INodeProvider nodeProvider, NodeConfiguration nodeConfiguration)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeManager.CreateNode(NodeConfiguration configuration, NodeAffinity nodeAffinity)
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.PerformSchedulingActions(IEnumerable`1 responses)
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.HandleNewRequest(Int32 node, BuildRequestBlocker blocker)
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.ProcessPacket(Int32 node, INodePacket packet)
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.<>c__DisplayClass70_0.<Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.INodePacketHandler.PacketReceived>b__0()
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.ProcessWorkQueue(Action action)
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
   at Microsoft.Build.Execution.BuildManager.EndBuild()
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.BuildProject(String projectFile, String[] targets, String toolsVersion, Dictionary`2 globalProperties, Dictionary`2 restoreProperties, ILogger[] loggers, LoggerVerbosity verbosity, DistributedLoggerRecord[] distributedLoggerRecords, Int32 cpuCount, Boolean enableNodeReuse, TextWriter preprocessWriter, TextWriter targetsWriter, Boolean detailedSummary, ISet`1 warningsAsErrors, ISet`1 warningsAsMessages, Boolean enableRestore, ProfilerLogger profilerLogger, Boolean enableProfiler, Boolean interactive, Boolean isolateProjects, Boolean graphBuild, Boolean lowPriority, String[] inputResultsCaches, String outputResultsCache)

MSBUILD : error MSB1025: An internal failure occurred while running MSBuild.
Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeFailedToLaunchException: No such file or directory
 ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): No such file or directory
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(String filename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean redirectStdin, Boolean redirectStdout, Boolean redirectStderr, Boolean setCredentials, UInt32 userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProcBase.LaunchNode(String msbuildLocation, String commandLineArgs)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.BuildProject(String projectFile, String[] targets, String toolsVersion, Dictionary`2 globalProperties, Dictionary`2 restoreProperties, ILogger[] loggers, LoggerVerbosity verbosity, DistributedLoggerRecord[] distributedLoggerRecords, Int32 cpuCount, Boolean enableNodeReuse, TextWriter preprocessWriter, TextWriter targetsWriter, Boolean detailedSummary, ISet`1 warningsAsErrors, ISet`1 warningsAsMessages, Boolean enableRestore, ProfilerLogger profilerLogger, Boolean enableProfiler, Boolean interactive, Boolean isolateProjects, Boolean graphBuild, Boolean lowPriority, String[] inputResultsCaches, String outputResultsCache)
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.Execute(String[] commandLine)
Unhandled exception. Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeFailedToLaunchException: No such file or directory
 ---> System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (2): No such file or directory
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.ForkAndExecProcess(String filename, String[] argv, String[] envp, String cwd, Boolean redirectStdin, Boolean redirectStdout, Boolean redirectStderr, Boolean setCredentials, UInt32 userId, UInt32 groupId, UInt32[] groups, Int32& stdinFd, Int32& stdoutFd, Int32& stderrFd, Boolean usesTerminal, Boolean throwOnNoExec)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartCore(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
   at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
   at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.NodeProviderOutOfProcBase.LaunchNode(String msbuildLocation, String commandLineArgs)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.BuildProject(String projectFile, String[] targets, String toolsVersion, Dictionary`2 globalProperties, Dictionary`2 restoreProperties, ILogger[] loggers, LoggerVerbosity verbosity, DistributedLoggerRecord[] distributedLoggerRecords, Int32 cpuCount, Boolean enableNodeReuse, TextWriter preprocessWriter, TextWriter targetsWriter, Boolean detailedSummary, ISet`1 warningsAsErrors, ISet`1 warningsAsMessages, Boolean enableRestore, ProfilerLogger profilerLogger, Boolean enableProfiler, Boolean interactive, Boolean isolateProjects, Boolean graphBuild, Boolean lowPriority, String[] inputResultsCaches, String outputResultsCache)
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.Execute(String[] commandLine)
   at Microsoft.Build.CommandLine.MSBuildApp.Main(String[] args)

The error is about a missing file, but nowhere does it say which file it is. I tried running the same command with detailed / diagnostic logs (-v d / diag) but that didn't show anything useful. I'm not sure why the behaviour is different.

Answer 1

To fix the issue I ran the following

ln -s / /rootfs

I found this solution after trying to build a new project in Concourse using dotnet new "Class Library" and then dotnet build. For some reason the error for this new project actually contained the path of the "missing" file.

Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.7.2+b60ddb6f4 for .NET
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Determining projects to restore...
  All projects are up-to-date for restore.
/usr/share/dotnet/sdk/3.1.417/Roslyn/Microsoft.CSharp.Core.targets(70,5): error MSB6004: The specified task executable location "/rootfs/usr/share/dotnet/dotnet" is invalid. [/tmp/build/04d13fd0/foo/foo.csproj]

Build FAILED.

/usr/share/dotnet/sdk/3.1.417/Roslyn/Microsoft.CSharp.Core.targets(70,5): error MSB6004: The specified task executable location "/rootfs/usr/share/dotnet/dotnet" is invalid. [/tmp/build/04d13fd0/foo/foo.csproj]
    0 Warning(s)
    1 Error(s)

I have no idea why it's looking for a file under /rootfs - there's no such directory on this machine or on my local machine (where dotnet build works). I suspect it's something to do with the underlying OS Concourse is running on.