How do I enable assembly bind failure logging (Fusion) in .NET?
This question is related to
c#
.net
vb.net
binding
assemblies
The answer is
I wrote an assembly binding log viewer named Fusion++ and put it on GitHub.
You can get the latest release from here or via chocolatey (choco install fusionplusplus).
I hope you and some of the visitors in here can save some worthy lifetime minutes with it.
I usually use the Fusion Log Viewer (Fuslogvw.exe from a Visual Studio command prompt or Fusion Log Viewer from the start menu) - my standard setup is:
- Open Fusion Log Viewer as administrator
- Click settings
- Check the Enable custom log path checkbox
- Enter the location you want logs to get written to, for example,
c:\FusionLogs(Important: make sure that you have actually created this folder in the file system.) - Make sure that the right level of logging is on (I sometimes just select Log all binds to disk just to make sure things are working right)
- Click OK
- Set the log location option to Custom
Remember to turn of logging off once you're done!
(I just posted this on a similar question - I think it's relevant here too.)
The Fusion Log Settings Viewer changer script is bar none the best way to do this.
In ASP.NET, it has been tricky at times to get this to work correctly. This script works great and was listed on Scott Hanselman's Power Tool list as well. I've personally used it for years and its never let me down.
Just in case you're wondering about the location of FusionLog.exe - You know you have it, but you cannot find it? I was looking for FUSLOVW in last few years over and over again. After move to .NET 4.5 number of version of FUSION LOG has exploded. Her are places where it can be found on your disk, depending on software which you have installed:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin
In my case helped type disk name in lower case
Wrong - C:\someFolder
Correct - c:\someFolder
For those who are a bit lazy, I recommend running this as a bat file for when ever you want to enable it:
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v EnableLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v ForceLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogFailures /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogResourceBinds /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogPath /t REG_SZ /d C:\FusionLog\
if not exist "C:\FusionLog\" mkdir C:\FusionLog
If you have the Windows SDK installed on your machine, you'll find the "Fusion Log Viewer" under Microsoft SDK\Tools (just type "Fusion" in the start menu on Vista or Windows 7/8). Launch it, click the Settings button, and select "Log bind failure" or "Log all binds".
If these buttons are disabled, go back to the start menu, right-click the Log Viewer, and select "Run as Administrator".
For those who are a bit lazy, I recommend running this as a bat file for when ever you want to enable it:
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v EnableLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v ForceLog /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogFailures /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogResourceBinds /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion" /v LogPath /t REG_SZ /d C:\FusionLog\
if not exist "C:\FusionLog\" mkdir C:\FusionLog
Set the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1
To disable, set to 0 or delete the value.
[edit ]:Save the following text to a file, e.g FusionEnableLog.reg, in Windows Registry Editor Format:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion]
"EnableLog"=dword:00000001
Then run the file from windows explorer and ignore the warning about possible damage.
Instead of using a ugly log file, you can also activate Fusion log via ETW/xperf by turning on the DotnetRuntime Private provider (Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntimePrivate) with GUID 763FD754-7086-4DFE-95EB-C01A46FAF4CA and the FusionKeyword keyword (0x4) on.
@echo off
echo Press a key when ready to start...
pause
echo .
echo ...Capturing...
echo .
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -on PROC_THREAD+LOADER+PROFILE -stackwalk Profile -buffersize 1024 -MaxFile 2048 -FileMode Circular -f Kernel.etl
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -start ClrSession -on Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x8118:0x5:'stack'+763FD754-7086-4DFE-95EB-C01A46FAF4CA:0x4:0x5 -f clr.etl -buffersize 1024
echo Press a key when you want to stop...
pause
pause
echo .
echo ...Stopping...
echo .
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -start ClrRundownSession -on Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x8118:0x5:'stack'+Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntimeRundown:0x118:0x5:'stack' -f clr_DCend.etl -buffersize 1024
timeout /t 15
set XPERF_CreateNGenPdbs=1
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -stop ClrSession ClrRundownSession
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -stop
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -merge kernel.etl clr.etl clr_DCend.etl Result.etl -compress
del kernel.etl
del clr.etl
del clr_DCend.etl
When you now open the ETL file in PerfView and look under the Events table, you can find the Fusion data:
Set the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1
To disable, set to 0 or delete the value.
[edit ]:Save the following text to a file, e.g FusionEnableLog.reg, in Windows Registry Editor Format:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion]
"EnableLog"=dword:00000001
Then run the file from windows explorer and ignore the warning about possible damage.
In my case helped type disk name in lower case
Wrong - C:\someFolder
Correct - c:\someFolder
Add the following values to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion Add: DWORD ForceLog set value to 1 DWORD LogFailures set value to 1 DWORD LogResourceBinds set value to 1 DWORD EnableLog set value to 1 String LogPath set value to folder for logs (e.g. C:\FusionLog\)
Make sure you include the backslash after the folder name and that the Folder exists.
You need to restart the program that you're running to force it to read those registry settings.
By the way, don't forget to turn off fusion logging when not needed.
If you have the Windows SDK installed on your machine, you'll find the "Fusion Log Viewer" under Microsoft SDK\Tools (just type "Fusion" in the start menu on Vista or Windows 7/8). Launch it, click the Settings button, and select "Log bind failure" or "Log all binds".
If these buttons are disabled, go back to the start menu, right-click the Log Viewer, and select "Run as Administrator".
Just a tiny bit of info that might help others; if you do something along the lines of searching all assemblies in some directory for classes that inherit/implement classes/interfaces, then make sure you clean out stale assemblies if you get this error pertaining to one of your own assemblies.
The scenario would be something like:
- Assembly A loads all assemblies in some folder
- Assembly B in this folder is stale, but references assembly C
- Assembly C exists, but namespaces, class names or some other detail might have changed in the time that has passed since assembly B became stale (in my case a namespace was changed through a refactoring process)
In short: A ---loads--> B (stale) ---references---> C
If this happens, the only telltale sign is the namespace and classname in the error message. Examine it closely. If you can't find it anywhere in your solution, you are likely trying to load a stale assembly.
Set the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1
To disable, set to 0 or delete the value.
[edit ]:Save the following text to a file, e.g FusionEnableLog.reg, in Windows Registry Editor Format:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion]
"EnableLog"=dword:00000001
Then run the file from windows explorer and ignore the warning about possible damage.
I usually use the Fusion Log Viewer (Fuslogvw.exe from a Visual Studio command prompt or Fusion Log Viewer from the start menu) - my standard setup is:
- Open Fusion Log Viewer as administrator
- Click settings
- Check the Enable custom log path checkbox
- Enter the location you want logs to get written to, for example,
c:\FusionLogs(Important: make sure that you have actually created this folder in the file system.) - Make sure that the right level of logging is on (I sometimes just select Log all binds to disk just to make sure things are working right)
- Click OK
- Set the log location option to Custom
Remember to turn of logging off once you're done!
(I just posted this on a similar question - I think it's relevant here too.)
Instead of using a ugly log file, you can also activate Fusion log via ETW/xperf by turning on the DotnetRuntime Private provider (Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntimePrivate) with GUID 763FD754-7086-4DFE-95EB-C01A46FAF4CA and the FusionKeyword keyword (0x4) on.
@echo off
echo Press a key when ready to start...
pause
echo .
echo ...Capturing...
echo .
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -on PROC_THREAD+LOADER+PROFILE -stackwalk Profile -buffersize 1024 -MaxFile 2048 -FileMode Circular -f Kernel.etl
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -start ClrSession -on Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x8118:0x5:'stack'+763FD754-7086-4DFE-95EB-C01A46FAF4CA:0x4:0x5 -f clr.etl -buffersize 1024
echo Press a key when you want to stop...
pause
pause
echo .
echo ...Stopping...
echo .
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -start ClrRundownSession -on Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntime:0x8118:0x5:'stack'+Microsoft-Windows-DotNETRuntimeRundown:0x118:0x5:'stack' -f clr_DCend.etl -buffersize 1024
timeout /t 15
set XPERF_CreateNGenPdbs=1
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -stop ClrSession ClrRundownSession
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -stop
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\Windows Performance Toolkit\xperf.exe" -merge kernel.etl clr.etl clr_DCend.etl Result.etl -compress
del kernel.etl
del clr.etl
del clr_DCend.etl
When you now open the ETL file in PerfView and look under the Events table, you can find the Fusion data:
If you already have logging enabled and you still get this error on Windows 7 64 bit, try this in IIS 7.5:
Create a new application pool
Go to the Advanced Settings of this application pool
Set the Enable 32-Bit Application to True
Point your web application to use this new pool
Set the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1
To disable, set to 0 or delete the value.
[edit ]:Save the following text to a file, e.g FusionEnableLog.reg, in Windows Registry Editor Format:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion]
"EnableLog"=dword:00000001
Then run the file from windows explorer and ignore the warning about possible damage.
Add the following values to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Fusion Add: DWORD ForceLog set value to 1 DWORD LogFailures set value to 1 DWORD LogResourceBinds set value to 1 DWORD EnableLog set value to 1 String LogPath set value to folder for logs (e.g. C:\FusionLog\)
Make sure you include the backslash after the folder name and that the Folder exists.
You need to restart the program that you're running to force it to read those registry settings.
By the way, don't forget to turn off fusion logging when not needed.
The Fusion Log Settings Viewer changer script is bar none the best way to do this.
In ASP.NET, it has been tricky at times to get this to work correctly. This script works great and was listed on Scott Hanselman's Power Tool list as well. I've personally used it for years and its never let me down.
You can run this Powershell script as administrator to enable FL:
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name ForceLog -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogFailures -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogResourceBinds -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogPath -Value 'C:\FusionLog\' -Type String
mkdir C:\FusionLog -Force
and this one to disable:
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name ForceLog
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogFailures
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogResourceBinds
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogPath
I wrote an assembly binding log viewer named Fusion++ and put it on GitHub.
You can get the latest release from here or via chocolatey (choco install fusionplusplus).
I hope you and some of the visitors in here can save some worthy lifetime minutes with it.
If you already have logging enabled and you still get this error on Windows 7 64 bit, try this in IIS 7.5:
Create a new application pool
Go to the Advanced Settings of this application pool
Set the Enable 32-Bit Application to True
Point your web application to use this new pool
You can run this Powershell script as administrator to enable FL:
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name ForceLog -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogFailures -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogResourceBinds -Value 1 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogPath -Value 'C:\FusionLog\' -Type String
mkdir C:\FusionLog -Force
and this one to disable:
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name ForceLog
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogFailures
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogResourceBinds
Remove-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Fusion -Name LogPath
Just in case you're wondering about the location of FusionLog.exe - You know you have it, but you cannot find it? I was looking for FUSLOVW in last few years over and over again. After move to .NET 4.5 number of version of FUSION LOG has exploded. Her are places where it can be found on your disk, depending on software which you have installed:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools\x64
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1A\bin\NETFX 4.5.1 Tools
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin
Just a tiny bit of info that might help others; if you do something along the lines of searching all assemblies in some directory for classes that inherit/implement classes/interfaces, then make sure you clean out stale assemblies if you get this error pertaining to one of your own assemblies.
The scenario would be something like:
- Assembly A loads all assemblies in some folder
- Assembly B in this folder is stale, but references assembly C
- Assembly C exists, but namespaces, class names or some other detail might have changed in the time that has passed since assembly B became stale (in my case a namespace was changed through a refactoring process)
In short: A ---loads--> B (stale) ---references---> C
If this happens, the only telltale sign is the namespace and classname in the error message. Examine it closely. If you can't find it anywhere in your solution, you are likely trying to load a stale assembly.
Source: Stackoverflow.com