New Updates: Error retrieving updates. MANIFEST: Error opening output file

[rshipman]

Hi

When selecting the following menu option:

Help | Product Updates | New Updates...

I get a popup with this:

Error retrieving updates.
MANIFEST: Error opening output file: "

Those are two single quotes, i.e. no file name. This happens if I do not have a workspace open.
If I do have a workspace open then I get essentially the same error but with the workspace tag file (.vtg) inbetween those single quotes.

Any ideas?

From About page:

SlickEdit Pro 2020 (v25.0.0.8 64-bit)

Serial number: WB949641
Licensed number of users: Single user
License file: C:\ProgramData\slickedit\25\slickedit.lic

Build Date: October 2, 2020
Emulation: Visual Studio

OS: Windows 10 x64
OS Version: 10.00.0 
Memory: 55% Load, 8909MB/16194MB Physical, 14675MB/21826MB Page File, 4693MB/134217727MB Virtual
Shell Information: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /q
Screen Size: 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1080

Project Type: Single file project - Other
Language: No file open
Encoding: No file open

Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SlickEdit Pro 25.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,221781MB free)
Configuration Directory: C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\OneDrive\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\25.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,221781MB free)
Migrated from: C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\24.0.0\

[rshipman]

I uninstalled and reinstalled SlickEdit. It is now v25.0.0.9.
I still get the error popup as described in the OP.

SlickEdit Pro 2020 (v25.0.0.9 64-bit)

Serial number: WB949641
Licensed number of users: Single user
License file: C:\ProgramData\slickedit\25\slickedit.lic

Build Date: October 20, 2020
Emulation: Visual Studio

OS: Windows 10 x64
OS Version: 10.00.0 
Memory: 60% Load, 9810MB/16194MB Physical, 15389MB/21826MB Page File, 4773MB/134217727MB Virtual
Shell Information: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /q
Screen Size: 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1080

Project Type: Cpp
Language: .h (C/C++)
Encoding: ACP (1252)

Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SlickEdit Pro 25.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,221396MB free)
Configuration Directory: C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\OneDrive\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\25.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,221396MB free)
Migrated from: C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\24.0.0\

[patrick]

I wouldn't expect to see that unless there was a problem fetching the update information from the update.slickedit.com website. We pull the update information with a HTTP GET request to update.slickedit.com.  I checked the release on a windows system, and I can only get that error here if I have the network interface disabled.

A network problem or maybe a firewall setup could make that request fail.  Can you reach www.slickedit.com from a browser from that system?  If you have something like curl or wget on your system, "wget http://update.slickedit.com/updates/" should download a small response that says something like "Illegal Version Number:".

A less likely candidate would be a firewall setup that only allows HTTP GET requests from whitelisted programs.  We haven't seen that be an issue before, but it might be possible.   The program that actually makes the network connection on windows is SlickeditUpdateMgr.exe, not vs.exe, so if there was a firewall policy preventing this connection, that would be the program to whitelist.

[rshipman]

Hi Patrick,
Thank you for your response.
I can access www.slickedit.com from chrome (which incidentally is how I posted this issue).
I can also access http://update.slickedit.com/updates (via chrome), which responds with "Illegal Version Number:" as you expected.
I have now whitelisted SlickeditUpdateMgr.exe in windows defender, but the problem persists.
Kind regards,
Ronnie

[patrick]

Very unusual.  We have seen instances of virus checkers give us problems, but not with this specifically.  If you temporarily disable the virus checker, does it work then?

I don't think there's any logging that can be enabled for this, but this afternoon I'll take a look and see if I can get a usable trace out of something like procmon without too much hassle.  If not, I might have to build a debug version of the updater that has logging and send it to you to run with.

[Rodney]

Looks like we cannot create a unique temporary file name. Temporary file paths use the Spill File path. You can find your Spill File path from Help>About SlickEdit, Program Information tab. Scroll to the bottom. On Windows, unless you have changed it, it will be your %TEMP% path. Make sure this path actually exists and is writeable. If all of that is okay, then we have just run out of unique names to use. In that case:
1/Exit SlickEdit
2/Browse to your Spill File path
3/Delete all files that look like "123456-78b90". These are SE temp files.
4/Restart and see if it works.

++rodney

[rshipman]

I know it's been well over a year since responding, but I'll try my luck.

I am still seeing this update error and I've never seen it work.

Replying to the last post (Rodney):
>echo %TEMP%
C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\AppData\Local\Temp
Note that it contains a space. Is that an issue? I'd be surprised if it was, but thought I would mention it.
There are no files of the form "123456-78b90" in that folder. I can create files in it.
I don't know what a 'Spill File' is and there is no mention of it in help. Here is the entire Program Information tab content:

SlickEdit Pro 2020 (v25.0.2.0 64-bit)

Serial number: WB949641
Licensed number of users: Single user
License file: C:\ProgramData\slickedit\25\slickedit.lic

Build Date: May 15, 2021
Emulation: Visual Studio

OS: Windows 10 x64
OS Version: 10.00.0 
Memory: 65% Load, 10573MB/16194MB Physical, 18267MB/32389MB Page File, 4854MB/134217727MB Virtual
Shell Information: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /q
Screen Size: 1920 x 1080 (-1920 0 1920 1080), 1920 x 1080 (1920 0 1920 1080), 1920 x 1080 (0 0 1920 1080)

Project Type: Single file project - Vcproj
Language: .cpp (C/C++)
Encoding: ACP (1252)

Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SlickEdit Pro 25.0.2\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,20192MB free)
Configuration Directory: C:\Users\Ronnie Shipman\OneDrive\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\25.0.2\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,20192MB free)

Responding to the second last post (patrick):
I do not run a third-party virus checker, just MS Security one. When I turn off its virus checking, I still see the problem.

[Rodney]

Actually the directory-with-spaces thing was a bug. I could only reproduce it when I set my spill-file path (TEMP) to a directory on the system drive that had spaces in it. Thanks for that final detail.

I've attached a patched 'upcheck.e' for 25.0.2 (since there will likely be no more hotfixes for prior versions). Put it in any folder you like and load it (Macro>Load Module). You should see "Module(s) loaded" on the message line (at the bottom) on success.

++rodney