MSBuild: 'error MSB6006: "cmd.exe" exited with code 1.' - tensorflow

Question

When attempting to build TensorFlow with CMake and MSBuild on Windows 10, I get the following error when running MSBuild:
"C:\work\tensorflow\tensorflow\contrib\cmake\build\tf_tutorials_example_trainer.vcxproj" (default target) (1) ->
"C:\work\tensorflow\tensorflow\contrib\cmake\build\tf_core_gpu_kernels.vcxproj" (default target) (90) ->
(CustomBuild target) ->
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V140\Microsoft.CppCommon.targets(171,5): error MSB6006: "cmd.exe" exited with code 1. [C:\work\tensorflow\tensorflow\contrib\cmake\build\tf_core_gpu_kernels.vcxproj]
351 Warning(s)
1 Error(s)
So I only get one error message, and that just tells me that cmd.exe was closed with an error code indicating that there was a problem, but not what the problem was. So how can I find out what caused this problem so I can solve it?

Answer 1

This error commonly happens because the default cmake install location requires admin privileges (normally C:/Program Files/).
There are two simple ways around this:
Run visual studio as Administrator
Override the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX variable to point somewhere not requiring admin privileges
Personally, I'd recommend the second option (When configuring cmake, the command would be something like: cmake . -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=D:/Some/Path)