Skip to content

Fix NRE in ToolConfigurationDeserializer when RuntimeIdentifierPackages is null#53369

Merged
marcpopMSFT merged 1 commit intorelease/10.0.3xxfrom
copilot/add-null-check-in-tool-config
Apr 17, 2026
Merged

Fix NRE in ToolConfigurationDeserializer when RuntimeIdentifierPackages is null#53369
marcpopMSFT merged 1 commit intorelease/10.0.3xxfrom
copilot/add-null-check-in-tool-config

Conversation

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Copilot AI commented Mar 10, 2026 •
edited
Loading

When a tool's settings XML omits the <RuntimeIdentifierPackages> element, ridSpecificPackages is null (via ?.ToDictionary(...)), causing an unhandled NullReferenceException on the subsequent .Any() call rather than a clean error message.

Changes

  • ToolConfigurationDeserializer.cs: Guard .Any() call with an explicit null check on ridSpecificPackages: 
    // Before
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(runner) && !ridSpecificPackages.Any())

// After
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(runner) && (ridSpecificPackages == null || !ridSpecificPackages.Any()))
Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>dotnet tool install crash with NRE in ToolConfigurationDeserializer</issue_title>
<issue_description>### Describe the bug

Was trying to debug why tool install fail with Unhandled exception: Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'source') error and found out that it fails here:

https://github.com/dotnet/sdk/blob/v10.0.103/src/Cli/dotnet/ToolPackage/ToolConfigurationDeserializer.cs#L70-L74

ridSpecificPackages is not checked for null

Exceptions (if any)

It would have saved time to debug it if exception stack were logged, not only exception messages.

.NET SDK:
 Version:           10.0.103
 Commit:            c2435c3e0f
 Workload version:  10.0.100-manifests.c992be6d
 MSBuild version:   18.0.11+c2435c3e0

```</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Add the null check even though we don't support this scenario.</agent_instructions>

## Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

<comments>
<comment_new><author>@baronfel</author><body>
Obviously we should fix nullrefs, so we should fix this. But I have to say to be 100% clear that we definitely do not support custom-made tool settings xml files.</body></comment_new>
</comments>

✨ Let Copilot coding agent set things up for you — coding agent works faster and does higher quality work when set up for your repo.

Copilot AI changed the title [WIP] Fix null reference exception in ToolConfigurationDeserializer Fix NRE in ToolConfigurationDeserializer when RuntimeIdentifierPackages is null Mar 10, 2026
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT marked this pull request as ready for review March 16, 2026 23:54
@marcpopMSFT
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Member

marcpopMSFT commented Mar 16, 2026

Code looks right. It should catch the null ref and provide this error now: "Tool '{0}' uses unsupported runner '{1}'."

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 16, 2026
View reviewed changes
Copy link
Copy Markdown
Contributor

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Pull request overview

Fixes a crash in the .NET tool settings XML deserialization path when <RuntimeIdentifierPackages> is omitted and the tool command’s Runner is empty, ensuring a ToolConfigurationException is thrown instead of a NullReferenceException.

Changes:

  • Add a null-safe guard around the RID-specific packages .Any() check when Runner is empty.

Comment thread src/Cli/dotnet/ToolPackage/ToolConfigurationDeserializer.cs
Comment thread src/Cli/dotnet/ToolPackage/ToolConfigurationDeserializer.cs
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT force-pushed the copilot/add-null-check-in-tool-config branch from f985889 to e92386e Compare April 10, 2026 18:06
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT enabled auto-merge April 10, 2026 18:07
@build-analysis build-analysis Bot mentioned this pull request Apr 10, 2026
Open
3 tasks
@marcpopMSFT
Fix NRE in ToolConfigurationDeserializer when ridSpecificPackages is …
b055edd 
…null

Co-authored-by: marcpopMSFT <12663534+marcpopMSFT@users.noreply.github.com>
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT force-pushed the copilot/add-null-check-in-tool-config branch from e92386e to b055edd Compare April 17, 2026 18:25
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT merged commit 17d3c7c into release/10.0.3xx Apr 17, 2026
28 checks passed
@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT deleted the copilot/add-null-check-in-tool-config branch April 17, 2026 21:57
This was referenced Apr 17, 2026
Merged
Merged
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Reviewers

Copilot code review Copilot Copilot left review comments

@dsplaisted dsplaisted dsplaisted approved these changes

+1 more reviewer

@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT approved these changes

Reviewers whose approvals may not affect merge requirements

Assignees

@marcpopMSFT marcpopMSFT

Copilot code review Copilot

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Milestone

No milestone

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

4 participants

@marcpopMSFT @dsplaisted