Why Do I Get \'PinvokeStackImbalance\' Errors in Visual Studio 2010 When Calling a C DLL from C#?

PinvokeStackImbalance Error in Visual Studio 2010

Question:

Upon upgrading to Visual Studio 2010, users encounter a persistent "pinvokestackimbalance" exception when invoking a C DLL from a C# application. This exception was not present in Visual Studio 2008.

Answer:

This exception arises due to a change in the default behavior of the managed debugging assistant (MDA) in Visual Studio 2010. To resolve this issue, consider the following steps:

1. Correct the Calling Convention:

   The primary cause of the exception is an incorrect calling convention setting. In Visual Studio 2010, the default calling convention for DllImport is CallingConvention.WinApi, which is equivalent to CallingConvention.StdCall for x86 desktop applications. However, the C DLL in this case expects the Cdecl calling convention.

   To correct this, edit the [DllImport] attribute in the C# code to explicitly specify CallingConvention.Cdecl.

   <code class="cs">[DllImport("ImageOperations.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
   static extern void FasterFunction(
       [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)]ushort[] inImage,
       [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)]byte[] outImage,
       int inTotalSize, int inWindow, int inLevel);</code>

2. Disable the PinvokeStackImbalance MDA:

   The PinvokeStackImbalance MDA can be disabled in Visual Studio's debugging settings to prevent it from interfering with other debugging tasks.

   • Open Visual Studio's Tools > Options menu.
   • Navigate to Debugging > General.
   • Uncheck the "Enable managed debugging assistants" option.

Additional Considerations:

• The PinvokeStackImbalance MDA is not enabled by default in Release mode, so the issue will not occur when building for release.
• For further information, refer to the MSDN documentation on CallingConvention enumeration (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/unmanaged-api/calling-conventions-for-platform-invoke#the-callingconvention-enumeration).

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