We have a legacy Visual Studio 2003.NET C++ DLL project. Still works with VS2003 on Windows 10 but we're looking to migrate to VS2019.
In VS2003 when you debug (F5), the box Executable for Debugging Session pops up. In the Executable file name box you select Browse... and navigate to the .EXE which will consume your DLL. Great!
But how to do the same in VS2019? Whenever I debug, Visual Studio thinks I'm using the Local Windows Debugger and I get the error "[PATH][PROJECT].dll is not a valid Win32 application". The Debug > Attach to Process... option is not right either because my target executable is not running yet.
If I'm understanding the problem correctly, I think you want to select the Debugging section of your DLL project's property pages. There you can choose which debugger to use and you can even set the executable you want to launch.
Related
Our previous development systems used Windows XP and Windows 7. Debugging C++ DLLs from Visual Studio worked great.
A recent move to Windows 10 has resulted in an annoying problem. We can debug once (using F5), but the 2nd time results in a linker error:
MyProg fatal error LNK1201: error writing to program database 'MyProg.pdb'
Trying to delete the .pdb manually in Explorer while Visual Studio is still open results in the error:
The action can't be completed because the file is open in devenv.exe
It doesn't matter whether you hit a breakpoint or not. Just start debugging once results in the problem. Re-starting Visual Studio resolves the issue (in the sense that you can debug once, but then you get the problem again).
If relevant:
x86 Visual Studio 2003.NET
targeting another x86 application
x64 Windows 10 Pro v1803
After hunting around for several hours some related, but unanswered, questions were found. Following suggestions in this MSDN article, along with some debugging of my own, this solution works:
Download FreePDB, a script written by MSDN user Toni76 (thanks Toni!)
Copy this script to a local folder (say C:\Apps\FreeDPB)
Download the latest version of SysInternals tool Handle (currently v4.21)
Copy handle.exe to C:\Apps\FreeDPB
NB! From the command line, run handle /? once. This is to agree the EULA. The script will not work if you skip this step!
Open Visual Studio, then Project > Properties > Build Events > Pre-Build Event
Set Command Line to C:\Apps\FreeDPB\freepdb $(ProjectName)
Set Description to Delete lock on PDB
...and now you don't need to restart Visual Studio to debug a 2nd time!
From comments, this works with multiple versions of Visual Studio on multiple versions of Windows.
Update
A more radical solution is described here which involves replacing a core Visual Studio DLL (NatDbgDE.dll). This solution only works for Visual Studio 2003 SP1, though.
In my case it was due to "Process Explorer" program, which was open alongside with my Visual Studio(I used it to check some properties of the exe I've created). After closing it problem solved.
I'm attempting to run a program built with a CMake-generated solution file under Visual Studio 2017's debugger in order to debug a problem. However, whenever I try selecting Start Debugging or Start Without Debugging I get the following error popup.
Unable to start program
'E:\build\someprogram\build\x64\Debug\ALL_BUILD
Access is denied.
At first glance the problem sounded like the one described here. However, that bug was allegedly fixed in VS 2017 15.5, and I currently use 15.6.7. And the location of the compiled executable isn't on a RAM disk or network drive, but on a physical drive. And the error happens when running without a debugger also.
Also I wondered about whether or not the executable was not properly configured, since it looks like the error is related to the ALL_BUILD target, but in my CMakeLists.txt I have this declaration:
add_executable(someproject ${SOURCE_FILES})
I would think that would add the executable to run. It also appears as a subproject in the Solution Explorer.
The compiled .exe runs outside of Visual Studio fine, although it crashes, which I'm trying to debug. Strangely, I cannot enter the Visual Studio debugger from the Abort/Retry/Ignore dialogue that appears after the crash by clicking Retry like it instructs; the window for choosing the Visual Studio version never appears.
It does not seem to be a permissions issue since I manually adjusted the permission of all the build directories with all permissions, with no changes. I'm also running Visual Studio with administrator privileges, and it makes no difference. Additionally I replicated the build process on an entirely different machine (Windows 10, as opposed to Windows 7) and the exact same error occurs, so I'm suspecting it's a CMake issue.
You need to set a different project as startup project (right click on your target executable project "someproject" and select "Set as StartUp Project" from the context menu). ALL_BUILD is a symbolic target and is not connected to an executable.
I've a solution which is ported from VS (Visual Studio) 2010 to VS2017 from one machine to another. I could debug while I can't. I need to know what's the problem. When running, I see the breakpoint marks get changed to include a warning, but I can't find what can be wrong. It seems that everything is ok.
1) Try to rebuild the application. Make sure that it's in the "Debug" mode.
2) If it works fine in VS2010 but failed in VS2017, I wonder if Visual Studio gets confused the configuration of the correct code type, if so you may need manually selected the .NET version. If you are using Framework 3.5 in VS2010, but on Visual Studio 2017 you are using such as Framework 4.6, by default automatically determines the code types to debug (v4.6, v4.5, v4.0). In this case you need to click in "Select..." button on "Attach to process" window and select Managed (v3.5, v3.0, v2.0).
3) Try to clear/delete all breakpoints from the Debug menu, choose Delete All Breakpoints. The reason is that it refreshes your Visual Studio setting file of your project.
4) Potential Workaround: Uncheck "Require source files to match original versions ..." in Options, Debugging.
In my case, changing from "Release" Mode to the "Debug" mode works!
When you launch the process, if the breakpoint icon turns hollow with the warning symbol, then the debugger cannot figure out what part of the program corresponds to that line of the source code. This is typically because the build is out-of-date with the executable, DLL, or PDB file.
A common way to get into the this situation is to not notice that the build failed and then let the debugger try to run the old executable which doesn't correspond to the current sources. It can also happen if Visual Studio gets confused about some of the dependencies and doesn't rebuild everything that needs to be rebuilt (which can happen after significant changes to the solution and/or project file(s), e.g., after an upgrade).
In these cases, clean out the build directory and force Visual Studio to rebuild everything. This will usually get you back in sync.
When you set a breakpoint in DLL code, that breakpoint will appear in the hollow warning state until the DLL is loaded. If your program uses delay-loading or if it manually loads the DLL (e.g., via a LoadLibrary call), you will commonly see this. Once the DLL is loaded, any breakpoint icons in the DLL should return to the normal red-ball state. If it doesn't yet you think the DLL should have been loaded. Check the Output window in the debugger to see if it really was loaded and whether there were any warnings or errors about loading the corresponding symbols from that DLL.
I am trying to launch the Console.Tests part of https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis in Debug mode (by pressing F5), so that I can place a breakpoint in it.
Visual Studio (2013), however, refuses to do so, claiming that my project is of DLL type:
Why? What am I missing?
BTW, building this project produces Console.Tests.exe in Visual Studio 2013\Projects\ServiceStack.Redis-master\tests\Console.Tests\bin\Debug which runs just fine.
Also, if I attempt to debug the project by right-clicking its menu, it also starts just fine:
Why? What am I missing?
You need to tell Visual Studio which StartUp project it should run by right clicking on Console.Tests project in solution explorer and selecting Set as Startup Project.
I have a program (32-bit .exe written in C++) that runs fine in the Debug directory of my project development tree but when I move it to another folder on my PC it crashes. I want to run it in the debugger from the new location to debug it. How do I start my .exe in the debugger at some arbitrary location on my PC?
I'm running Visual Studio 2013.
I want to set a breakpoint at the first executable line and step from there, just like I would if it was in the normal Debug path.
You could always add this somewhere in your app, which will open a prompt to attach a debugger when the app is run.
#if DEBUG
if (!System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
Debugger.Launch();
Debugger.Break();
#endif
In Visual Studio 2013, go to project properties, select the Debug configuration and go to Debugging. Enter the command, command line arguments and working directory.
Here's a screenshot of how it looks like:
Be sure to not move the PDBs. The EXE contains a reference to the PDBs and if the PDBs are not in the original place, Visual Studio cannot find them.
If you have already moved the PDBs, set up the symbol path accordingly in Tools | Options | Debugging.
The dialog looks like this: