“Error C1083: Cannot open source file” Shouldn'

Question

I was trying to #include a cpp file with some functions so I can use that cpp file later with other projects. It gave me an 'already defined in .obj' error and since then that .cpp file was like binded with my project. (I understood that's not the way, the answer here helped me with the already defined)

If I exclude the .cpp file from the project, remove it from the directory and remove the #include line it still looks for it:

c1xx : fatal error C1083: Cannot open source file: 'std.cpp': No such file or directory

Diagnostic:

Outputs for D:\MY DOCUMENTS\C#\PROJECT\D3DTESTC++\COWS AND BULLS\CBMAIN.CPP|D:\MY DOCUMENTS\C#\PROJECT\D3DTESTC++\COWS AND BULLS\STD.CPP: (TaskId:15)

It shouldn't be looking for the std.cpp at all, I removed it! So is there a way I can reset the project and recompile so that the program doesn't look for it? I already tried Rebuild and Clear -> Build Project

Answer 1

Or sometimes, like in my case, the issue is simply in the naming of the folders in the location. I had a very long path with folders that I like to name with special characters so they show up at the top and it's easy to access them. As soon as I put my solution in a folder just in D: drive, the issue was gone.

Answer 2

When I ran across a similar problem with VS Express, I wound up having to open up the the .vcxproj file (which is just XML), and remove the offending < ClInclude Include="FILEPATHANDNAME" > tags.

Answer 3

I had the same problem, but I had another .sln worked fine. After tooling around with the Project->Properties-> to make them look identical, nothing worked. I opened both .vcxproj files and copied the contents of the working version into my non-working version. (I noticed that the two files had different lengths. The non-working version was longer by about 20 lines.) I just changed the RootNameSpace to the non-working version's name. I saved the non-working file and presto! It worked.

Answer 4

For people having problem related to "error C1083: Cannot open source file":

Error is caused by settings in *.vcxproj file. Probably you deleted/moved source file by file explorer, not by Visual Studio's "Solution Explorer". Thus, your *.vcxproj file is corrupted. Fix is to manually correct settings in *.vcxproj file.

How Visual Studio settings files work

Visual Studio saves solution's info into file. This file is usually in project's solution directory, has extension .sln and base name is same as name of solution, f.ex.:

NameOfSolution.sln

Similarly, project's info is saved into one file (each project has its own file). Base name of this file is name of project, extension is .vcxproj, and usually is located in subdirectory named as your project, f.ex.:

NameOf1stProject/NameOf1stProject.vcxproj

NameOf2ndProject/NameOf2ndProject.vcxproj

Both *.sln and *.vcxproj files are textual files. You can open them by using Notepad.

How to fix problem

1. Find *.vcxproj file responsible for your project.

   If you don't know where it is, open in Notepad the *.sln file of your solution. Search for name of your solution. You will find line like:

   Project("{9AA9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D22-00B0C01AA943}") = "NameOf1stProject", "NameOf1stProject\NameOf1stProject.vcxproj", "{A8735D0A-25ED-4285-AB8F-AF578D8DB960}"
   

   Value under "NameOf1stProject\NameOf1stProject.vcxproj" is location of *.vcxproj file of your project.

2. Open found *.vcxproj file by text editor (f.ex. Notepad).

3. Search for line on which is filename you are struggling with.

   Example: if you are looking for "RemovedFile.cpp", then you should find line:

   <ClCompile Include="RemovedFile.cpp" />
   

4. Delete that line.

5. If you have opened Visual Studio, it asks you if it should refresh solution - select yes. If it is not opened - just start using it.

6. In case of any problems, try to rebuild solution (top banner -> Build -> Rebuild Solution)

In my cases, it worked. 30 mins of trying to fix, <1 minute of fixing.

Answer 5

When I renamed a file, I found I had to go to SolutionExplorer, Source File, select the file, first exclude from Project, then re-add it to project, and rebuild the solution it lives in. It was still showing up as the old file name under Source Files for me.

Answer 6

In Solution Explorer you can select/deselect option "Show All Files". Try both options and make sure excluded file is not included in project for both of them.

That's what I had: I used "Show All Files" option (so you can see all the files in project directories). I excluded one of my .cpp files from project. However, it behaved as this file is in project.

That's how I managed to fix it: I switched "Show All Files" off and saw this file still belongs to project! So I excluded this file once again.

As I see, that's a known issue.

This worked for me, hope it will be useful for someone else.