error C2471: cannot update program database

Title: You may receive a "PRJ0008" or "C2471" or "C1083" or "D8022" or "LNK1103" or similar error message when you try to build a solution in Visual C++


Symptoms:

D8022 : Cannot open 'RSP00000215921192.rsp'
PRJ0008 : Could not delete file 'vc90.idb'.
C1083 : Cannot open program database file 'vc90.pdb'
C2471 : Cannot update program database 'vc90.pdb'
LNK1103 : debugging information corrupt.

Cause:

This problem occurs when all of the following conditions are true:

You have a solution with more than one project in it.
Two or more of the projects are not dependent on each other.
You have parallel builds enabled. (Tools -> Options: Projects and Solutions, Build and Run: "maximum number of parallel project builds" is set to a value greater than 1)
You are building on a system with multiple CPUs (cores).
Two or more of the non-dependent projects are configured to use the same Intermediate and/or Output directory.
A specific race condition in mspdbsrv.exe remains uncorrected.


Resolution:

To resolve the problem do one or more of the following:

1. delete the PDB file from the project folder and try to build again and check

2. Clean the project and Rebuild the solution to solve it.

 Otherwise try to do the below steps

Reconfigure the non-dependent projects to specify an Intermediate and Output directory that is different from one another, e.g. Output Directory = "$(SolutionDir)$(ProjectName)\$(ConfigurationName)", Intermediate Directory = "$(OutDir)".
Adjust your solution's project dependencies (Project -> Project Dependencies...) so that each is dependent on another.
Disable parallel builds.
Add the "/onecpu" boot option to your boot.ini file.
Change you BIOS settings to enable/use only one CPU.
File a problem report with Microsoft Technical Support and keep bugging the crap out of them until they eventually fix mspdbsrv.


Status:

The problem is a combination of both a user project configuration error as well as a race condition in Microsoft's "mspdbsrv.exe" utility that does not properly more than one thread calling it at the same time for the same file resulting in the file's HANDLE being left open.

Additionally Visual Studio itself and/or its build system (VCBUILD and/or MSBUILD) (or all three!) should be made smart enough to detect and alert the user of such user errors so that corrective action can be taken.

This problem has been around for a LOOOOOONG time.


Applies to:

Microsoft Visual C++ 2005
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
Others?