Publish Web-site causes 'Circular file references are not allowed.'

Question

User1506540180 posted

Hi All:

In my web-site I have in the root folder a master page and 4 pages that use the master page.  I can run the site in development just fine.  But when I publish the site, I get the following 5 errors:

/WebUI/LoadBoard.aspx(1,0): Error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.
/WebUI/About.aspx(1,0): Error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.
/WebUI/Default.aspx(1,0): Error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.
/WebUI/Help.aspx(1,0): Error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.
/WebUI/Help.aspx(1,0): Error ASPPARSE: Circular file references are not allowed.

The solution is under TFS source control.  I check my changes in and have a fellow team member publish and they can publish fine.  This problem seemed to arose, when I updated some of the DLL in the solution.  I got the problem to disappear with the following changes (to the build and config file):

Property Pages -> MSBuild Options
x Use fixed naming and single page assemblies

<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" strict="true" explicit="true" batch="false" targetFramework="4.0">
...

But it is back again.  If I remove the reference to the master page, that page will be dropped from the list of errors.  I am using VS 2012 version 11.0.61030.00 Update 4.

Phil

Answer 1

User-166373564 posted

Hi Phil,

Property Pages -> MSBuild Options  x Use fixed naming and single page assemblies

This means that it specifies that batching will be turned off during precompilation in order to generate assemblies with fixed names. Themes and skin files will continue to be compiled to a single assembly. This option is not allowed for in-place compilation.

when I updated some of the DLL in the solution.  I got the problem to disappear

Clean and Rebuild - Cleaning and rebuilding your current Project (Right-click > Clean, Right-click Rebuild respective) and see if that makes any difference at all. 

In addition, I’d also like to suggest you to enable the failed Request Tracing in IIS, this will give me some hint on why a request has failed.

Best regards,

Angie

Answer 2

User-760709272 posted

Try doing a "Clean solution" from the Build menu, then rebuild the solution.

Answer 3

User1506540180 posted

Hi All:

Clean and Rebuild

This is a web-site not a web-app, therefore it does not have the 'clean' option.

I have deleted the C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files build files.  I have also copied the site off to my own build source directory and ran the aspnet_compiler.exe compiler manually, but with the same results.

This site was created in 2008, as a 3.5 framework.  It is still a web-site, but now using 4.0 framework.

As I said before, I am using VS 2012 version 11.0.61030.00 Update 4.  A fellow team member can publish the site, but I cannot.  Interesting that the team member has an older version of VS 2012.

As a reminder, I can build fine, but I cannot publish.

Phil

Answer 4

User1506540180 posted

Hi All:

I downloaded Visual Studio Express 2013 and tried to publish and got the same results, 'circular reference'.

Phil

Answer 5

User-166373564 posted

Hi pnhuhn,

This site was created in 2008, as a 3.5 framework.  It is still a web-site, but now using 4.0 framework.

As I said before, I am using VS 2012 version 11.0.61030.00 Update 4.  A fellow team member can publish the site, but I cannot.  Interesting that the team member has an older version of VS 2012.

Target framework for a project is modified to 4.0, it updates the web.config as below.
<system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0"/>
    <pages controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion="3.5" clientIDMode="AutoID"/>
</system.web>

Further resource:

Upgrade an ASP.NET Web Application to ASP.NET 4

Best regards,

Angie