compiled exe is missing zlib1.dll

Ogglord

Hi, I'm evaluating Packager. When I've created the exe from my project and started SQLPackage.exe, and then press Run I'm greeted by

Unable to load DLL 'zlib1.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)

There is no file with that name, it's the compression library, isn't it?

/ Oscar

Brian Donahue

Hi Oscar,

Yes, it is. When you create a SQL Package using compression, the zlib1.dll is copied to a folder in your %TMP% directory and referenced from your package to decompress the SQL code inside.

I suppose the first things to check are that you are running the latest version of SQL Packager to create the package and that you have read/write access to the folder pointed at by the TMP environment variable.

StevenE

I have found we have the same problem on Vista. In our example we are using Business x64. We have had no problems with 2000/XP. Does any one have any ideas?

Brian Donahue

What kind of system was the package created on? Was it a 64-bit OS? I wonder if the zlib1.dll has a 32-bit codebase and the package is being compiled for a 64-bit platform target?

StevenE

The package was created on a 32 bit Windows XP machine.

Steven

Brian Donahue

Hi Steven,

Here is another idea: I think the user running the package needs read/write permissions to the folder that the package is being run from.

StevenE

I checked this. The current user does have read write permissions. Unfortunately this is the only problem preventing a release of our product from going out.

Any other ideas?

Many thanks

Steven Elliott

Brian Donahue

Hi Steven,

Please check to see if zlib1.dll is getting extracted from your package when you run it. There should be a subfolder in your %tmp% folder (normally this is in c:\documents and settings\you\temp) with a format similar to tmp86.tmp15303109. Zlib1.dll should be in there. In order to find this temporary folder more easily, you can tell explorer to 'view details' and sort on last modified date.

If the file does not appear, you may not have read/write access to the temporary folder.

Another thing that's happened in the past is that some anti-virus software has flagged the creation of assemblies in the temporary folder as 'suspicious'. You may want to try temporarily disabling any antivirus applications and see if that helps.

StevenE

I found the file twice in tmp9dea1482234 and tmpbc94.tmp113828 under
c:\Users\Ron\AppData\Local\Temp.

The machine has no virus checker installed.

I thought I would try to work around this by putting the Zlib1.dll in the same folder as the packager exe. When I ran it I got the following error
"An attempt was amde to a load aprogram with an incorrect format". I have seen this issue where 32 bit apps/dlls try to call 64 bit dlls. Is this any help?

Many thanks

Steven Elliott

Brian Donahue

Hi Steven,

This is exactly the same idea I had, but the information you had provided indicated that all of the code was 32-bit.

What versions of .NET Framework are installed? All packages should be specifically targetted to .NET Framework 1.1. This wouldn't come with Vista -- maybe downloading the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 redistributable from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and installing this may get it to work.

StevenE

Version 3.0 and Version 2.0 where already on the machine. I put on version 1.1 and SP1 and it did not have any effect.


Steven Elliott

StevenE

I have also tried the program on a 32 bit vista (clean install). The exe works correctly so it must be a 64 bit problem.


Steven Elliott

Brian Donahue

Hi Steve,

It works fine on Windows XP 64. I tried that yesterday.

Brian Donahue

How about making sure that the package is trying to reference the correct DLL?

If you create some registry entries in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Fusion key:

REG_DWORD LogFailures 1
REG_SZ LogPath c:\FusionLog

Create a folder called 'FusionLog' in c:This should leave a bunch of HTML files in a subfolder named after the executable name of your package. Each file will be a failed assembly binding attempt with more information about why the binding had failed.

StevenE

I do not have access to XP 64 but I have found the same problem with Vista 64 home premium.

The error log from the Fusion Log folder is as follows....

*** Assembly Binder Log Entry (05/06/2007 @ 14:13:02) ***

The operation failed.
Bind result: hr = 0x80070002. The system cannot find the file specified.

Assembly manager loaded from: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\mscorwks.dll
Running under executable C:\Program Files\Shire Systems\Food Sentinel\Database Scripts\UpdateLive_0001_0000_0006_07151_0001_0000_0007_07152.exe
--- A detailed error log follows.

=== Pre-bind state information ===
LOG: User = Ron-PC\Ron
LOG: DisplayName = RedGate.Compression.ZLib, Version=5.3.0.2, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7f465a1c156d4d57
(Fully-specified)
LOG: Appbase = file:///C:/Program Files/Shire Systems/Food Sentinel/Database Scripts/
LOG: Initial PrivatePath = NULL
LOG: Dynamic Base = NULL
LOG: Cache Base = NULL
LOG: AppName = UpdateLive_0001_0000_0006_07151_0001_0000_0007_07152.exe
Calling assembly : UpdateLive_0001_0000_0006_07151_0001_0000_0007_07152, Version=1.0.2708.16557, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null.
===
LOG: This bind starts in default load context.
LOG: No application configuration file found.
LOG: Using machine configuration file from C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\config\machine.config.
LOG: Post-policy reference: RedGate.Compression.ZLib, Version=5.3.0.2, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7f465a1c156d4d57
LOG: GAC Lookup was unsuccessful.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Program Files/Shire Systems/Food Sentinel/Database Scripts/RedGate.Compression.ZLib.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Program Files/Shire Systems/Food Sentinel/Database Scripts/RedGate.Compression.ZLib/RedGate.Compression.ZLib.DLL.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Program Files/Shire Systems/Food Sentinel/Database Scripts/RedGate.Compression.ZLib.EXE.
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Program Files/Shire Systems/Food Sentinel/Database Scripts/RedGate.Compression.ZLib/RedGate.Compression.ZLib.EXE.
LOG: All probing URLs attempted and failed.

adrianbanks

We have been having a possibly related problem (see post http://www.red-gate.com/MessageBoard/viewtopic.php?t=5016) and eventually found a solution to make the compiled output work correctly on a 64 bit machine.

Using CorFlags.exe from the .Net SDK (http://www.process64.com/SettingPlatformDependencyBitsInNet20.aspx), we've set the bit flags on the compiled exe to force it to always run as a 32 bit process. Our installer now works on both 32 and 64 bit hardware.

When viewing our fusion logs, we were also having the binding failure with the Zlib dll, but it still works correctly without it. The real problem was the 64 bit issue.

Brian Donahue

Thanks Adrian,

I've noticed this on my own 32-bit system as well. Any time you run a package it seems to fail on one binding attempt and then proceed to work regardless.

What seems to be happening is that the compression library is extracted from the resources into a temporary file in %TMP%\Red Gate, then the file is loaded into the AppDomain as an assembly. It's not clear exactly how .NET Framework is doing that, but if experience serves me right it probably puts the assembly in the %TMP%\something.tmp folder.

So maybe logging the assembly bindings isn't really the way to go, because the assembly is being loaded from disk right into the AppDomain (AppDomain.CurrentDomain.Load).

adrianbanks

Having done further investigation, the problem definitely appears to be with the compression library.

With compression enabled, the packaged database (packaged on a 32 bit machine) fails on a 64 bit machine.

With compression disabled, the packaged database (packaged on a 32 bit machine) succeeds on a 64 bit machine.

Is there an issue with the compression dll on a 64 bit machine that would cause this problem?

Brian Donahue

Have you got Visual Studio installed? What you may want to try is run the packager to create a package and output as a C# project. Then open the output project in Visual Studio, and change the target platform from 'any CPU' to specifically 'x86' and compile the project.

I'm sorry I am unable to reproduce the problem, on an x64 computer with 64-bit Windows, a package built on a 32-bit edition of Windows will run just fine.

adrianbanks

I'm not actually using the packager, I'm using the SQL Toolkit API to generate the compiled packaged output from some of my own code. I am however using the (slightly modified) template solution that comes with the packager for the output.

What I'm trying to get to the bottom of is whether the standard packager output has an issue with 64 bit, or whether it is specific to the modified template solution I am using.

I've tried some tests with differing results:

Using the modified template solution as a base, I used my code to generate a C# .exe file. This will run fine on 32 or 64 bit with compression disabled, and on 64 bit with compression disabled, but crashes on 64 bit with compression enabled.

Using the modified template solution as a base (ie. replacing the one in C:\Program Files\Red Gate\SQL Bundle 5\SQL Packager Code Templates\C#), I used the Red Gate SQL Packager version 5.2.0.49 to generate a C# .exe file. This will run fine on both 32 or 64 bit with compression disabled or enabled.

It seems that something in the way the PackagerEngine.Package() method compiles the output causes this issue.

Brian Donahue

Can you try it with the 'factory' version of SQL Packager code template? If this still exists in your SQL Bundle 5 installation directory, all you'd need to do is change the first argument in the PackagerEngine constructor (TemplateFolder) to point at c:\program files\red gate\sql bundle 5\sql packager code templates\c#.

adrianbanks

Ok. I did four runs. Each time, I used my custom code to create a package using the RedGate PackagerEngine class.

Using my 'custom' code template:

Compression disabled: works ok
Compression enabled: crashes

Using the 'factory' version of SQL Packager code template:

Compression disabled: works ok
Compression enabled: crashes


So it doesn't look like the template is the cause of the problem. I also tried making sure the RedGate.Compression.ZLib.dll was present in next to the packages with compression enabled to make sure it wasn't just a binding problem, but that made no difference.

Brian Donahue

Hi,

I still think it would work if you changed the OutputType from Executable to Project, then manually compiled it with Visual Studio, after setting the platform target to x86 instead of Any CPU.

If that works, maybe we could find a way for packager to create its' executables this way.

adrianbanks

I've modified my code to make the PackagerEngine output a project instead of a compiled exe.

Compiling this project using VS2003, it fails with an error to do with loading resources. (Is the option to compile for x86 available in VS2003 - I thought this was a VS2005+ option only?)

Compiling this project using VS2005 for "any CPU", it fails with the usual error.

Compiling this project using VS2005 for "x86", it works.

Could it possibly be something to do with the fact the my application is running under .Net 2.0, creating the package project as a VS2003 project, which the PackagerEngine then compiles under .Net 1.1?

Brian Donahue

Odd -- I thought the opposite would have been true. The resources should be produced in .NET 1.1 format and therefore incompatible with .NET 2.0. Maybe this is the root of the problem -- did you perhaps convert your SQL Packager code template to .NET 2.0? I think this breaks the code template.

adrianbanks

No. I have tried that to try and solve this problem, but the PackagerEngine won't compile it so I had to put it back to a VS2003 project.

StevenE

Sorry to change the track a bit but I tried using Corflags to set the app as 32 bit and the exe works correctly on x64 systems. This is an acceptable solution. (The exes are being used as part of an installer).

Regarding the current thread, I have not modified or changed the code templates, I am using the product 'out of the box'.

Many thanks for your suggestions

Steven Elliott

Brian Donahue

Thanks Steven!

I have noted this down in our internal documentation so we can use it if this issue comes up again. Thanks for letting us know what your solution was.

khushbu

This is a dll file through which we can access the files that are present in the computer. If the dll file is not installed in your system then download zlib1.dll and run all the files.