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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(201.6, 5%, 29%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EN%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
In Visual Studio's Package Manager Console (V 6.6.0.61), the command
get-migrations, and other Entity Framework commands, output:
Specify --help for a list of available options and commands.
Unrecognized command or argument 'C#'
I have successfully run this and other EF commands through the PMC within the last week. But, seemingly all of a sudden, these commands produce the above two-line output. I have installed EF V6.4.4, verified in PMC by Get-Package and Get-Help about_EntityFramework.
I am using ASP.NET MVC 5, not Core.
Any ideas as to what might be causing this?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(262.40000000000003, 36%, 35%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ELH%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hi @Nnr,
Can you provide a screenshot of the output? Based on what you said, I did not reproduce your problem.
Is your project running smoothly? Are the default project settings in the Package Manager Console correct?
You try closing the Package Manager Console, closing Visual Studio, and reopening them.
[deleted this comment]
Thanks for reaching out, @Lan Huang-MSFT .
Here're those screenshots:
Yes, the PMC is set to the correct default project. PMC used to give a different error message if the default project were wrong. But now, no matter the default project, PMC spits out the above message.
I can't really tell if the project is running smoothly because the EF command I really need to do is update-database; the DB is incongruent with the models right now. When I try to run the project, it gets stuck on a familiar error, which requires me to update the database. Still, I'm using a version of the code that previously worked fine.
** My coworker, who is working on a different version of the code on a different machine, got the same output in his PMC. He also gets this when working on a different project in VS that also uses EF. The problem persists after closing VS and restarting our computers.
This codebase is using repository pattern (probably not relevant, but just in case).
Let me know if I can clarify anything else!
EDIT:
Here are the packages in the codebase, as reported by Get-Package (with ProjectName column removed):
Id Versions -------- -----------
Antlr {3.5.0.2}
bootstrap {4.6.0}
EntityFramework {6.4.4}
jQuery {3.6.0}
jQuery.Validation {1.19.3}
Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc {5.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Razor {3.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization {1.1.3}
Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages {3.2.7}
Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotN... {3.6.0}
Microsoft.jQuery.Unobtrusive.Val... {3.2.12}
Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure {1.0.0.0}
Modernizr {2.8.3}
Newtonsoft.Json {13.0.1}
popper.js {1.16.1}
System.Reflection {4.3.0}
WebGrease {1.6.0}
Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc {5.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Razor {3.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages {3.2.7}
Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotN... {3.6.0}
Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure {1.0.0.0}
EntityFramework {6.4.4}
Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc {5.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Razor {3.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages {3.2.7}
Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotN... {3.6.0}
Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure {1.0.0.0}
System.Buffers {4.5.1}
Ical.Net {4.2.0}
MailKit {3.4.3}
Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotN... {3.6.0}
MimeKit {3.4.3}
NodaTime {3.0.9}
NS.Utilities.EmailHelper {1.0.23}
Portable.BouncyCastle {1.9.0}
System.Buffers {4.5.1}
System.Diagnostics.EventLog {7.0.0}
System.Memory {4.5.5}
System.Numerics.Vectors {4.5.0}
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.... {6.0.0}
System.Security.Principal.Windows {5.0.0}
System.Threading.Tasks.Extensions {4.5.4}
Antlr {3.5.0.2}
bootstrap {4.6.0}
EntityFramework {6.4.4}
jQuery {3.6.0}
jQuery.UI.Combined {1.13.1}
jQuery.Validation {1.19.3}
Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc {5.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Razor {3.2.7}
Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization {1.1.3}
Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages {3.2.7}
Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotN... {3.6.0}
Microsoft.jQuery.Unobtrusive.Val... {3.2.12}
Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure {1.0.0.0}
Modernizr {2.8.3}
Newtonsoft.Json {13.0.1}
popper.js {1.16.1}
System.Buffers {4.5.1}
System.Reflection {4.3.0}
WebGrease {1.6.0}
Hi @Nnr,
I think you can create a new Asp.Net MVC project and then use migrations to see if it throws errors. If there are no errors, there may be a problem with the code of your current project, and you may need to provide the code. If an error is reported, there may be a problem with VS. You can provide the version of VS you are using, and we will help you further troubleshoot the problem.
Simple steps to implement the migration:
Create a model
public class Test
{
[Key]
public int id { get; set; }
public string password { get; set; }
}
Create a DbContext
public class TestDbContext : DbContext
{
public TestDbContext() : base("TestDbContext") // Connection string name
{
}
public DbSet<Test> tests { get; set; }
}
connectionStrings in Web.config
<connectionStrings>
<add name="TestDbContext" connectionString="****" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
</connectionStrings>
At the PM> prompt enter the following commands:
enable-migrations
add-migration InitialCreate
update-database
get-migrations
I may have misconfigured the files with the code you shared:
But after installing EntityFramework with Nuget Package Manager, Iget the same error when testing the PMC commands. It makes sense to me that this is an issue with VS issue, as Piotr said below, since this issue has been encountered on different projects on different machines without changes to them. Here's my current VS info:
Thank yoU!
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(150.4, 91%, 24%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EPG%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I just reintall (and reset PC) VS2022 and everything works fine for me on both machine.
@Piotr Glowala , thanks for sharing! Which version are you using, 17.7.1?
Yes, please remember to install Entity Framework 6 Tools with VS2022.
Thank you!!! That worked!
I have the same problem - Unrecognized command or argument 'C#' after Add-Migration command.
Problem on newest VS 2022 (17.7). Problem also starts after update VS2019 to newest version 16.11.29 (before update everything was working great on VS2019).
Everything works on different machine with VS2019 16.11.27
After Windows 11 update for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 i 4.8.1 the same problem on different machine with VS2019 16.11.27 :(
TLDR: must reinstall VS
There is a way to get around this until a fix is released and won't require a reinstall of Visual Studio.
If you run your commands in Verbose mode from the PMC e.g. Add-Migration "Name of Amendment" --verbose, you will see that for the --language parameter, C# is being output twice.
You can copy that string out and then remove the second C# from the language parameter, paste it back into the PMC and run it.
It will then create your migration script. Note, you may need to manually add the migration script to the Migrations folder in your solution via Add->Existing Item and select the 3 files that make up the migration script.
To update the database, run Update-Database --verbose, copy out the string as above and remove the second C# and then paste back into the PMC and run.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(147.20000000000002, 23%, 24%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EYY%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Kev's resolution fixed my issue. The -verbose indeed showed that C# is repeated and once I ran it after deleting the duplicated C#, I was able to run update-database successfully.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(140.8, 87%, 23%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EES%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Kev's resolution should be marked as the correct accepted answer here. It helped in my case.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(121.6, 9%, 21%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
So did this just never get an answer? Any response at all after the requested info was provided? I've just updated to VS 2022 v17.9.1 and I'm getting this error constantly!
Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2022
Version 17.9.1
VisualStudio.17.Release/17.9.1+34616.47
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.8.09032
Installed Version: Community
ASP.NET and Web Tools 17.9.195.45391
ASP.NET and Web Tools
Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 17.9.195.45391
Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0
Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 17.9.195.45391
Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools
C# Tools 4.9.0-3.24081.11+989117396f26e5453ff157df610d22ce45b6b0a9
C# components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.
Common Azure Tools 1.10
Provides common services for use by Azure Mobile Services and Microsoft Azure Tools.
Microsoft JVM Debugger 1.0
Provides support for connecting the Visual Studio debugger to JDWP compatible Java Virtual Machines
NuGet Package Manager 6.9.1
NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio. For more information about NuGet, visit https://docs.nuget.org/
Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX Extension 2023.2.809.64
Progress® Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX Extension
Razor (ASP.NET Core) 17.9.2.2408002+5aec2f1744a2273d3e7157cc4cc1986f87f524d4
Provides languages services for ASP.NET Core Razor.
SQL Server Data Tools 17.9.51.1
Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools
TypeScript Tools 17.0.30103.2001
TypeScript Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
Visual Basic Tools 4.9.0-3.24081.11+989117396f26e5453ff157df610d22ce45b6b0a9
Visual Basic components used in the IDE. Depending on your project type and settings, a different version of the compiler may be used.
Visual F# Tools 17.9.0-beta.23614.3+a521e1cd420beb56c15faf6836184fadd2b7937a
Microsoft Visual F# Tools
Visual Studio IntelliCode 2.2
AI-assisted development for Visual Studio.
Visual Studio Tools for Unity 17.9.2.0
Visual Studio Tools for Unity
See Kev's solution. It worked for me.