Another Strange ASP.net Error: The compiler failed with error code 255

Question

I have tried all solutions from other posts

This simple web application works on my laptop: windows 10/ VS-2015

Deploying to my WIN-2012 server gives this error:

Compilation Error Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.

Compiler Error Message: The compiler failed with error code 255.

None of the solutions from other SO posts have helped.

Show Detailed Compiler Output:

c:\windows\system32\inetsrv> "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\vbc.exe" /t:library /utf8output /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.CSharp\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.CSharp.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\assembly\dl3\e9f43226\00c8c33b_c72ad101\OC.Web2.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.ApplicationServices\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.ApplicationServices.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel.Activation\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.ServiceModel.Activation.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Drawing\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Drawing.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Runtime.Serialization\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Runtime.Serialization.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel.Web\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.ServiceModel.Web.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_64\System.Web\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Core\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Core.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Services\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Web.Services.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\assembly\dl3\c13fc534\00128170_db94d001\Microsoft.AspNet.FriendlyUrls.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.WorkflowServices\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.WorkflowServices.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.ServiceModel.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.DynamicData\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.DynamicData.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\assembly\dl3\8ff134f9\00fd38bf_4821d101\Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_64\System.Data\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.ServiceModel.Activities\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.ServiceModel.Activities.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml.Linq\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.Linq.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\assembly\dl3\7686bcd0\001d3ec6_4198d001\Newtonsoft.Json.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\assembly\dl3\5993785e\00cabc17_4a21d101\AspNet.ScriptManager.jQuery.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Data.DataSetExtensions\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Extensions\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.Extensions.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_64\System.EnterpriseServices\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.EnterpriseServices.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.IdentityModel\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.IdentityModel.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Configuration\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Configuration.dll" /R:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Activities\v4.0_4.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Activities.dll" /out:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\App_global.asax.v_2hcqbe.dll" /D:DEBUG=1 /debug+ /nowarn:41008,40000,40008 /define:_MYTYPE=\"Web\" /imports:Microsoft.VisualBasic,System,System.Collections,System.Collections.Generic,System.Collections.Specialized,System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations,System.Configuration,System.Linq,System.Text,System.Text.RegularExpressions,System.Web,System.Web.Caching,System.Web.DynamicData,System.Web.SessionState,System.Web.Security,System.Web.Profile,System.Web.UI,System.Web.UI.WebControls,System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts,System.Web.UI.HtmlControls,System.Xml.Linq /warnaserror- /optionInfer+  "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\App_global.asax.v_2hcqbe.0.vb" "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\oc\88c6cdde\6b37fcc6\App_global.asax.v_2hcqbe.1.vb"

Answer 1

Just throwing in my two-cent answer for what may be an obvious solution in case anyone else runs into this...

For me, this happened after I updated the DotNetCompilerPlatform used in our project, but it worked fine on my dev machine - it was when I tried to deploy to our production server that I started receiving this error.

None of the other answers made sense in my case - I didn't have NuGet on the production machine, and I couldn't clean the solution, etc. However I did discover that CSC.EXE couldn't even run at all - it was throwing a TypeLoadException when executed from the command line. Rebooting didn't work either.

Fortunately the answer was simple - the synchronization tool that I was using to copy files to the production server was excluding EXE files, and thus the new CSC.EXE (and a few other files) did not get deployed. Once I deployed the correct version of the CSC.EXE it worked fine. I also verified it by running CSC.EXE -version

Answer 2

Same issue. Solved by deleting and re-creating the website in IIS.

Answer 3

I seem to get those errors when I try to attach the debugger to the application while it's still starting.

When I get this error (either The compiler failed with error code 1. or The compiler failed with error code 255.), I do the following:

• Clean Solution,
• Stop the App Pool,
• Build Solution,
• Start the App Pool.

Then I let the application start fully, and attach debugger after that if I need to.

Answer 4

Remove the compilers tag from the web.config file:

<compilers>
    <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" type="Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.CSharpCodeProvider,  Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" warningLevel="4" compilerOptions="/langversion:6 /nowarn:1659;1699;1701" />
    <compiler language="vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript" extension=".vb"  type="Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.VBCodeProvider,     Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.4.0,     Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" warningLevel="4"     compilerOptions="/langversion:14 /nowarn:41008     /define:_MYTYPE=\&quot;Web\&quot; /optionInfer+" />
</compilers>

Answer 5

I'm running Win2k12 R2 as a desktop OS and yesterday upgraded vs2k13 to vs2k15 after which some of my .NET 4.5 web applications stopped working with the above error "The compiler failed with error code 255", a bit of Googling and I came up with the below;

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3118750

I was scenario #2 in the above article - ultimately I just uninstalled KB3098779 and KB3097997, rebooted and the applications worked again, happy days.

Answer 6

Restarting the server (win-2012) solved the problem.

Answer 7

If you remove the following Roslyn related packages, it may would solve your problem.

Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform
Microsoft.Net.Compilers

I could deal with the issue I was being faced with.

You can find my solution here.

Answer 8

I just right click on solution and selected "Clean solution" and clicked. this worked for me.

Answer 9

The solution was working locally for me but from server I was getting this error 'The compiler failed with error code 255'.

It worked for me by uninstalling the nuget package 'Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform' from my solution and redeploying.

Answer 10

In my case I had to reinstall nuget packages.. Update-Package -reinstall

I had 255 error coming back every couple of rebuilds. Deleting temp & obj folders, restaring IIS was just a temporary help. Luckily I found name of some nuget packages in Compiler Output, which guided me to another try..

Answer 11

For me, it got fixed after removing all references related to applicationInsights and deleting all files from packages.

Answer 12

Moving project to .net 4.6.1 helps as well.