Circular file references not allowed

Question

I am having a problem in building my solution in VS2008. Normally, it compiles fine in the environment. Sometimes, it fails with:

/xxx_WEB/secure/CMSManagedTargetPage.aspx(1): error ASPPARSE: Circular
file references are not allowed.

I rebuild and it works fine.

Now, however, I am in the middle of setting up a CruiseControl.NET system and am testing my checked out code with MSBuild before I integrate the build into CC. Now, everytime I MSBuild, I get:

"Q:\cc\xxx\checked out from svn\xxx.sln" (default target) (1) ->
(xxx_WEB target) ->
  /xxx_WEB/secure/CMSManagedTargetPage.aspx(1): error ASPPARSE: Circular
file references are not allowed.

Problem is, I can't see where this reference is.

• I have searched for the reference across the entire solution and canf ind no references to the page itself (CMSManagedTargetPage) anywhere other than in the page or its codebehind, or within a string, eg:

  C:\dev2008\xxx\IWW.xxx.ASPNET\AspxHttpHandler.cs(82): inputFile = context.Server.MapPath("~/secure/CMSManagedTargetPage.aspx"); C:\dev2008\xxx\IWW.xxx.ASPNET\AspxHttpHandler.cs(83): virtualPath = "~/secure/CMSManagedTargetPage.aspx";

My assembly references are also fine (as far as I know). My Web Application is at the "top" of the dependencies, and nothing references it and therefore the faulting page so cannot cause a circular reference. Of course, the page itself may reference something such as a UserControl within the same assembly/web site, but as mentioned earlier, a search on CMSManagedTargetPage yielded no results so this is not happening.

Changing the batch attribute in web.config had no effect on MSBuild.

I find it very odd that it "sometimes" fails in VS and always fails in MSBuild. Am I missing some subtlety?

Distaste

Answer 1

Reposted from:

http://ellisweb.net/2009/12/fixing-the-circular-file-references-are-not-allowed-error-in-asp-net/

If you have the following setup: /folder1/Control1.ascx > References Control2 /folder2/Control2.ascx > References Control3 /folder1/Control3.ascx This means that the folder1 dll will reference the folder2 dll which will again reference the folder1 dll, causing a “circular file reference”.

---

This helped me out today; I had a master page in the root referencing a master page in a folder, which referenced a different page in the root. Shuffling which pages were in which folders worked like a charm.

Urochrome

Answer 2

I ran into your post when I ran into the same problem. There are probably a million solutions to a Circular reference problem, but mine was a direct result of Master Pages.

I accidentally created a page using a nested masterpage, outside the nested folder. Example:

Master1.Master
Page.aspx
(Folder1) 
Master2.Master

While Page.aspx was referencing Master2.Master as its masterpage, It would build normally, and error when I "Publish".

Capitalist

Answer 3

I also ran into this problem, was able to get a successful Publish from within Visual Studio by selectin the "Use fixed naming and single page assemblies." For some reason that seems to avoid the compilier thinking there is a circular reference.

Ramses

How use Use fixed naming... in targets msbuild or deployment script (powershell) ? – Hasten

For aspnet_compiler it is the -fixednames switch; for web.config, it is batch=false on the <compilation> element (inside <system.web>). For MSBuild it is the [AspNetCompilerTask][1], FixedNamed boolean. And it works because it creates an individual DLL with 1 object each instead of a batch of objects in 1 DLL per folder in your site. The batches can have circular references much more easily. [1]learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/… – Sneaky

Answer 4

I had similar issue, and got a close clue from @JBicford's answer. I was using Default.aspx on root of website using Master.master in another folder. Don't know if that can cause that, haven't tested this solution yet.

But for someone who is interested in getting publishing problem sort out, below option works for VS 2012, all other options fail because of incorrect dependencies on other folders and pages.

Thoma

In my case that was Default.aspx on root and master page in different folder. – Apriorism

Answer 5

I found that I was getting this error when Visual Studio batch compiled pages. I was able to fix this issue by setting batch="false" on the compilation element in the web.config.

To be more specific, I added a web.config in the directory that had pages with issues. That web.config file only has the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <!-- Added to prevent error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed. -->
    <compilation batch="false" />
  </system.web>
</configuration>

That way, Visual Studio/MSBuild can still batch compile the other non-affected directories, if it desires.

More information about the compilation element and batch attribute are available at msdn.

Tracey

Answer 6

For me it was registering the aspx page on the master page as well.

For example (in the master page):

<%@ Register Assembly="MyPage" Namespace="MyPage" TagPrefix="MyPage" %>
...
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="MyPage" runat="server"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

And then in the aspx page:

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPage.master" AutoEventWireup="true" 
    CodeFile="MyPage.aspx.cs" Inherits="MyPage" Title="Untitled Page" %>
<asp:Content ID="SomeContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="MyPage" Runat="Server">

Removing the Register fixed it.

Ratcliff

Answer 7

This bug still exists in ASP.NET 4.0.

The error I got was:

/DirA/PageA.aspx(3): error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.
/DirA/PageA.aspx(71): error ASPPARSE: Unknown server tag 'Controls:ControlA'.

ControlA was the same control as referenced on PageA.aspx(3). I found that I had to move ControlA into the same directory as PageA in order to make this error stop.

Convalesce

Answer 8

I had this problem but none of the suggestions worked for me, mine may be a unique case, but just in case other people encounter the same problem:

Mine seemingly had nothing to do with Circular References and was in fact due to my build output. After a while of getting nowhere I placed a breakpoint on the control that couldn't be loaded and got a notification telling me that it would not be hit.

Changing both the project properties and solution configuration settings to build for Any CPU rectified the problem.

Kokanee

If running msbuild on command line adding /p:Platform="Any CPU" will also work to resolve this issue – Symmetrical

Answer 9

For those of you who like me have been going round and round with this issue. I believe I may have another solution is all else fails. We had this issue with an MVC application and we spent several weeks attempting the various suggestions to no avail.

What we found out was that we are running McAfee Virus scanner V 8.0. we found that when we disable the On-Access Scanner From the VirusScan Console we were able to build and Debug without issue.

The only thing is that when this setting it disabled It will automatically re-enable itself every 15 mins.

I felt that this was worth sharing..

Thanks, Dean

Edit: This works only if you have local admin access to your machine. From a security standpoint there is valid concerns about turning AV scanners off (rightfully so). In fact if your on a work environment that is controlled by a net admin you may even get push back from them. I'm sure there is another way to do this but for now this seems to work for us but if I find another workaround (that is net admin friendly) I will share here.

Lesson

Thanks for sharing your suggestion regarding AV scanners; we had been beating our heads against the wall for the past few days trying to resolve this issue and once I disabled the real-time on-demand AV scanning on our Cruise Control .NET build server, this "circular references" error went away. – Cardialgia

Answer 10

I expericence this behavior if I have a user control (ASCX) that is included inside a master page.

Usually I simply ignore the error since it is gone after the second build.

Morelock

I had the same problem. Now I use a <asp:PlaceHolder> in my Master Page and in the code behind add the control programatically: phGoogleAnalyticsPageTracker.Controls.Add(Page.LoadControl(virtualPathToGoogleAnalyticsPageTrackerControl)); – Coly

Answer 11

Actually, this post explains why it happens and how to fix it: http://www.gitshah.com/2011/04/how-to-fix-circular-file-references-are.html

How to fix the “circular file references are not allowed” Error in ASP.Net

On one of my .Net projects, I came across an interesting issue. I wasted couple of hours fixing it. Hence, I decided to share my findings, so that others do not have to waste their time fixing the same issue.

The issue

The issue was pretty simple, the app would not build. The error that I was getting while building a ASP.Net web project using MSBuild was: /someProject/Controls/A/ucA.ascx(2): error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.

Of course the error said there is some sort of circular reference in my code. I looked around to check and recheck, if I have created a circular reference by mistake. However, if there was any circular reference, the code would not compile. Code was compiling fine but it was failing when we ran aspnet_compiler.exe.

The ASP.Net Compilation tool (aspnet_compiler.exe) enables you to compile an ASP.Net Web application, this helps application performance because end users do not encounter a delay on the first request to the application.

I checked again, but certainly there was no code related circular dependency then why the aspnet_compiler.exe was complaining about the circular file references?

The Explanation

Googling a little, I found that, by default, in a Website Project, ASP.Net creates one DLL per folder. Hence, if you have the following setup:

User control ucA.ascx is present in the directory "A". ucA.ascx refers another user control ucB.ascx User control ucB.ascx is present in the directory "B". ucB.ascx refers another user control ucC.ascx User control ucC.ascx is present in the directory "A".

The folder A's DLL will reference the folder B's DLL, which will again reference the folder A's DLL, causing a "circular file reference".

This is the reason why the aspnet_compiler.exe fails with the "circular file reference" error.

The Fix

There are two ways this issue could be fixed

Rearrange the user controls (or MasterPages) to remove the circular references. Usually this means moving the user controls in separate directories. In our example, moving ucC.ascx to a new directory "C" (Preferred Solution). Use batch=”false” in the compilation tag of the web.config file. This will cause a new DLL to be created for each control/page in the site. This should fix the error but is really lousy for performance, so it should be avoided.

I moved the ucC.ascx in a different directory and yes the error went away!

Fowling

Answer 12

for me these tricks did not work

-setting batch=true -deleting asp.net Temp files and IIS reset -replacing suspicious ascx files

and the problem was from referencing a recent added project to my solution and unloading it after final build .and removing reference to this newly added library solved the problem

Ephialtes

Answer 13

I had this same error during a major development overhaul. In my particular case this was because I was using a "JUNK" folder where I was dragging and dropping unused or renamed files. My junk folder was being compiled and a file I recently deleted was causing this problem.

I fixed this by excluding the individual file in my junk folder.

Sulky

Answer 14

Same issue on some code I inherited.

My issue was I had a file in the app_data Folder, but it had a namespace of MyControls in it. I ended up moving that file out of the app_data folder and created a new folder "my controls".

Yukyukaghir

Answer 15

In most cases this occurs after copying aspx pages. Make sure your Class stated as Inherits="MyPage" is not repeated on the entire site.

Virgate

Answer 16

One another issue is in code behind: MasterPageA : B => PageC : B => PageC use MasterPageA. It occurs the error "Circular file references are not allowed". Visual Studio does't report the error in this classes. You have to check manually.

Coriander