I find it strange, because I rebuild the same code. Theoretically the dll and pdb file should be the same, because the code does not change. Even if it changes, where the breakpoints are located should not be changed.
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I have a Visual Studio solution with an executable and a hot-swappable dll (plugin). The executable runs a file system monitor in the directory where the dll is built and when a new version is generated, it reloads it and continues working with it. One of the crucial things here is that the executable state is preserved between reloads of the dll.
Now this works fine if I run the program without debugging (Ctrl-F5) and then just build when I have changes in the dll code. The dll is reloaded, the new functionality executed, and it's a charm. The problem is when I want to debug the dll.
Unfortunately Visual Studio doesn't allow me to build while debugging. So the only thing that does work is if I run without debugging and then periodically attach and detach the debugger from the process when I make changes and want to debug the dll. This is pretty cumbersome. Especially when I want to debug the plugin init function. In such case I have to add a break in the executable before calling it (say a message box: "Plugin loaded, but init not called. Attach to process now if you want to add breakpoints in init).
Is there a Visual Studio workflow where I can skip the constant manual reattaching to the process?
(Xcode with its explicit target selection, for example, does allow me the dream workflow, where everything just works and I can build the .dylib while debugging, without explicitly reattaching the debugger to the process. init breakpoints working and all)
I am working in Visual Studio 2010 VC++. I am trying to debug a release build. I have it in release mode, and made all of the changes noted in the following link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fsk896zz(v=vs.100).aspx
As well as rebuilt the solution. The breakpoints are still complaining that the symbols have not been loaded.
When I try to debug, I have looked at the modules window and tried to hand-locate the PDBs. However, I have over 100 DLLs, half of which say "Cannot find or open the PDB file."
Do I need to manually go through and search for all of these PDB files? I started, but I checked out the code from a company repository and all of the PDBs are all over the place, it's a little bit of a mess. Also, if I can find the PDB file, sometimes the dates don't match up with the DLLs, and Visual Studio doesn't take them. I thought the PDB files were created when the project was built, so I thought they would be created again when I re-built the project, but maybe I am incorrect?
Is there any way around this problem, and is finding the PDBs the correct solution to being able to hit the breakpoints?
I have a *.dmp (dump) file of my crashed application. Now, I want to analyze the crashed process on a different machine. That is, the app crashed on one machine, and I have Visual Studio on other machine.
Now, what do I need to be able to see stack trace and all symbols of my app? Is *.exe file and the *.dmp file sufficient?
Or do I need also the source code and PDB file?
If so, should the source code and executable file be placed in the same directories structure as it is on the machine the process was running?
How to attach PDB file to crash dump file in Visual Studio?
No, you definitely need the .pdb files to get decent stack traces. By far the simplest way is to do this from the machine on which you built the program, the source code and .pdb files will be in the right place.
Next best thing is to copy the exact same executables into the exact same folder in which it was installed on the failing machine. Copy the .pdb files into that same directory, that's where the debugger looks next if it can't find them in the original build location. Once the debugger lands on a statement with source code and the .pdb wasn't stripped then it will prompt you to give the source code file location.
Next best thing is Tools + Options, Debugging, Symbols and add the path to the directory that contains the .pdb files.
In that same dialog, also turn on the Microsoft Symbol Server (http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols). That gets you the symbols for the Windows DLLs and lets you accurately trace back to your own code if the crash occurred in a Windows DLL.
When I build a release version of a project in Visual Studio 2008, it creates a .pdb file, e.g. for a simple WPF project it generates a .exe and .pdb file.
I've always understood .pdb files to be for debugging, so I would expect them to be in the Debug folder but not the Release folder.
And looking around at other StackOverflow questions, it doesn't seem that pdb files work well with teh Release version anyway.
Why are .pdb files generated in the Release folder by default and how can I turn that option off?
You are right. PDB files are for debugging but you may need to debug release builds too. Saving PDBs of released builds is very important when you want to debug a customer issue and you have the crash dump file related to that issue.
By the way, generating PDB files does not harm compiler optimizations. If you don't ship it to the customer, there will be no performance implications.
It depends on the project settings. Just happens that in Release version a .pdb is also generated by default. It will not hurt you - just don't ship it to the customer.
To skip its creation go to Linker->Debugging in project settings and set "Generate Debug Info" to "No".
I asked a similar question a while ago Error Creating Debug Information - Code Won't Compile but never found a solution.
That problem seems to have evolved a bit. Now Visual Studio is creating a PDB debug file even when the application is in Release mode and debugging is turned off in Web.config. This PDB file is getting locked by Visual Studio and sometimes w3wp.exe. Compiling fails saying the PDB file is in use by another process (devenv.exe, w3wp.exe, or both). I cannot compile until I use Unlocker to release all the locks.
First off why is VS creating a debug file when in release mode?
Secondly how can I fix this? I have run a repair install on VS and re registered ASP.Net with IIS but that didn't help. I am using Windows Server 2003, VS 2008 Standard, and IIS6.
The first symptoms showed up a week or two ago when I was working on a WPF application. Until today putting the project in Release mode made the problem go away. Now it is happening even in Release mode.
Any ideas?
PDB files are created for release builds too - that is by design so you can still debug crashes in a release binary.
The PDB file is certainly not required for running. However, if it is in the same directory as the binary being run, IIS may be loading it (not really sure what IIS does here though). You can copy the binaries to a different folder (minus the PDB files) to prevent this problem.
Did you try this: http://callicode.com/Homeltpagegt/tabid/38/EntryId/24/How-to-disable-pdb-generation-in-Visual-Studio-2008.aspx?
You can also add custom after-build event to release configuration to delete the pdb file if everything else fails.