Problem building on windows-x64

[Mark Rivers via Tech-talk <tech-talk at aps.anl.gov>]

Folks,

I am having intermittent problems building on windows-x64.  I get errors like this:

link -nologo -subsystem:windows -dll -LTCG -incremental:no -opt:ref -release  -MACHINE:X64           -out:quadEM.dll -implib:quadEM.lib     drvQuadEM.obj drvSoftQuadEM.obj        J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADCore/lib/windows-x64/ADBase.lib  J:/epics/devel/asyn-4-46/lib/windows-x64/asyn.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADCore/lib/windows-x64/ntndArrayConverter.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/nt.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/pvDatabase.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/pvAccess.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/pvData.lib  J:/epics/devel/pvxs/lib/windows-x64/pvxsIoc.lib  J:/epics/devel/pvxs/lib/windows-x64/pvxs.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADCore/lib/windows-x64/ntndArrayConverterPvxs.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/netCDF.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/nanohttp_stream.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/Magick++.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/coders.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/Magick.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/jbig.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/jp2.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/bzlib.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/png.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/webp.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/lcms.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/ttf.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/wmf.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/filters.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/tiff.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/xml2.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/NeXus.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/hdf5_hl.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/hdf5.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/bitshuffle.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/lz4hdf5.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/blosc.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/szip.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/zlib.lib  J:/epics/devel/areaDetector-3-14/ADSupport/lib/windows-x64/jpeg.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/dbRecStd.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/dbCore.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/ca.lib  H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/lib/windows-x64/Com.lib  J:/epics/devel/pvxs/bundle/usr/windows-x64/lib/event_core.lib gdi32.lib oleaut32.lib bcrypt.lib iphlpapi.lib netapi32.lib ws2_32.lib

   Creating library quadEM.lib and object quadEM.exp

LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'quadEM.exp'

make[1]: *** [H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/configure/RULES_BUILD:317: quadEM.dll] Error 1104

make[1]: Leaving directory 'J:/epics/devel/quadEM/quadEMApp/quadEMSrc/O.windows-x64'

make: *** [H:/epics-devel/base-7.0.10/configure/RULES_ARCHS:58: install.windows-x64] Error 2

Note that is says it could not open quadEM.exp.  However, it actually did create that file as seen here:

J:\epics\devel\quadEM\quadEMApp\quadEMSrc>dir O.windows-x64

 Volume in drive J is people_rw

 Volume Serial Number is 5005-CD09

 Directory of J:\epics\devel\quadEM\quadEMApp\quadEMSrc\O.windows-x64

06/10/2026  09:30 AM    <DIR>          .

06/10/2026  09:29 AM    <DIR>          ..

06/10/2026  09:29 AM               202 Makefile

06/10/2026  09:29 AM             4,135 drvSoftQuadEM.d

06/10/2026  09:29 AM             3,852 drvQuadEM.d

06/10/2026  09:29 AM         1,705,689 drvQuadEM.obj

06/10/2026  09:29 AM         1,623,888 drvSoftQuadEM.obj

06/10/2026  09:30 AM             7,059 quadEM.exp

06/10/2026  09:30 AM            12,070 quadEM.lib

               7 File(s)      3,356,895 bytes

               2 Dir(s)  9,567,843,336,192 bytes free

The problem is intermittent, if I try to build several times eventually it usually works.

My EPICS files reside on a Linux file server which is mounted with SMB from the Windows workstation.  This has worked fine for 20+ years.  But recently I started having these problems.  I have not changed the Visual Studio environment recently, and it was previously working.  The Linux OS (RHEL 9.7) and the Windows 11 OS are relatively new.  I am suspecting a problem with file locking or file caching on the SMB files.  Has anyone else run into this problem?

Thanks,

Mark