mscorlib.dll error when debugging through SpecFlow feature file

[Rob Manger]

Hi guys,

I have an issue when debugging through SpecFlow feature files and step definitions that results in an error and Visual Studio becomes unresponsive.  I am hoping someone may have come across this before and has a solution, but a quick google search hasn't had much luck.  

Steps to reproduce:

• I put a breakpoint on a line in the feature file.
  
• When debugging, Visual Studio correctly breaks at the expected point
• I am able to step into the step definition
• When I attempt to step out of the step definition back to the feature file the below error is encountered.
  
• Visual Studio becomes unresponsive for ~5 minutes until some background process timesout.

Note: This only occurs when stepping through the file.  If I continue running (ie: F5 instead of F10) then execution continues normally.

Error Details:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.ExecutionEngineException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

System.ExecutionEngineException was unhandled

  HResult=-2146233082

  Message=Exception of type 'System.ExecutionEngineException' was thrown.

  InnerException: 

Setup details:

• I am running Visual Studio Professional 2013 on Windows 8 (running in a VM on a MacBook Pro)
  
• I am executing with Resharper 8
  
• Project is targeting .NET 4, though I have 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 4.5.1 frameworks installed
  

Thanks for your help in advance.  Let me know if you need more details.  

Cheers

Rob

[Mike Higgins]

Hello, We are also seeing this issue.  If we place a breakpoint in a step binding and step out of the binding into the feature file, we get a FatalExecutionEngineError with the message below:

The runtime has encountered a fatal error. The address of the error was at 0x7464b796, on thread 0x2be0. The error code is 0xc0000005. This error may be a bug in the CLR or in the unsafe or non-verifiable portions of user code. Common sources of this bug include user marshaling errors for COM-interop or PInvoke, which may corrupt the stack.

It seems to me that there must have been a security update recently that has caused the SpecFlow VS Extension to error out at this specific point.  I say this because the only thing that has changed is a bunch of updates were installed on my box over the past few days and I've been working on the SpecFlow tests earlier this week.

Let me know if you want further details.

Thanks,

Mike.

[Gáspár Nagy]

Which unit test provider and unit test runner you use?

[Mike Higgins]

I use the MSTest unit test provider and I'm seeing this issue when we run in Debug mode in Visual Studio using Visual Studio's built in test list and Resharper.  I'll let Rob speak for which he uses.

[Gáspár Nagy]

I'm a bit confused. Are you running it from the VS built-in test window or from Resharper?

[Mike Higgins]

Sorry about that being confusing.  One person here is using the VS built-in test window and I'm using Resharper.  We're both getting the same error even though we are executing them from different runners.

[Rob Manger]

Apologies for the delay in responding.  I had not configured to get emailed updates on this topic.

In answer to your questions Gaspar, I am using NUnit as the provider, but Resharper as the test runner.

I am executing/debugging from within the Resharper Unit Test Sessions window within Visual Studio.

Hope that helps.  And I've configured email updates so now I will know when there is a reply :)

Cheers

Rob