VS2012 link.exe runs from command line, but not from C#'s System.Diagnostics.Process?

Question

Im trying to run the linker that comes with VS2012 from a C# program but i get an error saying mspdb110.dll is missing when the linker runs. Why is running the exe from a C# process causing this problem? It works fine from the command line (everywhere else to!). Heres a chunk of code, it works exactly as expected, but link.exe complains. Im not trying to do any fancy process manipulations, i just want to start it with an argument. So the question is what is being done from C# to prevent link.exe from finding a dll. secondly, why does link.exe need this debug related dll to run? And lastly, how should i go about fixing this? Oh, just to make things clear it is link.exe that is giving the errors, nothing else.

    private void buildButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        string linkerPath = null;

        if (File.Exists((linkerPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86) +
            "\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin\link.exe")))
        {
            ProcessStartInfo linkInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(linkerPath);
            linkInfo.Arguments = "/subsystem:" + subsystemComboBox.Text + " ";

            //node.Text is the full file path
            foreach (TreeNode node in treeNodes.CSArray)
            {
                linkInfo.Arguments += """ + node.Text + "" ";
            }

            linkInfo.Arguments += librariesRichTextBox.Text;

            //complete example arg string: /subsystem:console "C:	estdir	est.obj" msvcrt.lib

            try
            {
                Process linkProcess = Process.Start(linkInfo);

                linkProcess.WaitForExit();

                linkProcess.Close();
            }
            catch (Exception err)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(err.Message, "Error!!!", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            MessageBox.Show("the VS linker wasnt found!");
        }
    }

Sayse · Accepted Answer

I'd imagine this is down to the working directory, when you call the process from your applicaton, the working directory used is derived from wherever the application was started from, i.e bin/debug.

The commandline will most likely be opening it from its native location where the dll also lives.

Therefore your application will be looking in bin/debug for the dll instead of the correct directory

You can set the working directory to the correct directory through ProcessStartInfo...

var linkerPath = Path.Combine(
        Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86),
      "\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\VC\bin\link.exe");

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo {
    FileName = linkerPath,
    WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(linkerPath)};

Process p = new Process{
    StartInfo = startInfo};

VS2012 link.exe runs from command line, but not from C#'s System.Diagnostics.Process?

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VS2012 link.exe runs from command line, but not from C#'s System.Diagnostics.Process?