Access violation crashes in link.exe

[equeim]

Description

Occasionally when running builds on windows-2022 runner, MSVC's link.exe crashes with "Access violation" error:

FAILED: src/Debug/tracker_test.exe 
  C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /C "cd . && "C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.exe" -E vs_link_exe --msvc-ver=1942 --intdir=src\CMakeFiles\tracker_test.dir\Debug --rc=C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100261~1.0\x64\rc.exe --mt=C:\PROGRA~2\WI3CF2~1\10\bin\100261~1.0\x64\mt.exe --manifests  -- C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\2022\ENTERP~1\VC\Tools\MSVC\1442~1.344\bin\Hostx64\x64\link.exe /nologo @CMakeFiles\tracker_test.Debug.rsp  /out:src\Debug\tracker_test.exe /implib:src\Debug\tracker_test.lib /pdb:src\Debug\tracker_test.pdb /version:0.0 /machine:x64 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console && C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /C "cd /D D:\a\tremotesf2\tremotesf2\build\src && "C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe" -noprofile -executionpolicy Bypass -file D:/a/tremotesf2/tremotesf2/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/msbuild/applocal.ps1 -targetBinary D:/a/tremotesf2/tremotesf2/build/src/Debug/tracker_test.exe -installedDir D:/a/tremotesf2/tremotesf2/vcpkg_installed/x64-windows-static/debug/bin -OutVariable out""
  LINK Pass 1: command "C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\2022\ENTERP~1\VC\Tools\MSVC\1442~1.344\bin\Hostx64\x64\link.exe /nologo @CMakeFiles\tracker_test.Debug.rsp /out:src\Debug\tracker_test.exe /implib:src\Debug\tracker_test.lib /pdb:src\Debug\tracker_test.pdb /version:0.0 /machine:x64 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console /MANIFEST /MANIFESTFILE:src\CMakeFiles\tracker_test.dir\Debug/intermediate.manifest src\CMakeFiles\tracker_test.dir\Debug/manifest.res" failed (exit code 0) with the following output:
  LINK : warning LNK4300: ignoring '/INCREMENTAL' because input module contains ASAN metadata
  
  Access violation

After retrying the build completes without errors.

Most recently I experienced it today with 20241215.1.0 image.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 12
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

20241215.1.0

https://github.com/equeim/tremotesf2/actions/runs/12551076538/job/34994873200

Is it regression?

Last image before these error started to appear was 20241201.2.0

Expected behavior

link.exe does not crash

Actual behavior

link.exe crashes with "Access violation" error

Repro steps

1. Build C++ project on windows-2022 runner

[hemanthmanga]

Hi @equeim, Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We are looking into this issue and will update you on this issue after investigating.

[subir0071]

Hi @equeim, I tried reproducing the error at my end with MSVC , but everything looked good at the runner end.
Please see this test workflow which is working seamlessly.