Per default, when compiling a Visual Studio project in release mode, the complete path to the pdb is put into the image file, e.g.:
c:\myprojects\demo\release\test.pdb
Using an undocumented linker switch (/pdbpath:none) one can force Visual Studio 2008 to reduce the full qualified name of the pdb, e.g:
test.pdb
I need to do the same with a project which is still built using VC6.
I tried the "/pdbpath:none" switch at the project settings level, but the linker complains about this unknown switch.
Does anyone knows a method (or a tool) to accomplish this either when linking a VC6 project or afterwards directly at the image level?
Your best bet is to use pdbstr.exe from MS directly. It allows for direct extraction, update, and misc other functions directly, independent of compiler version (up to the last supported version, which I think is VS2013 right now). We use it to add SVN linkings directly to PDBs which we then store in local symbol stores using srctool.
For newer link.exe versions, the syntax changed.
The option you want is now /pdbaltpath:%_PDB%
It is documented on MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd998269.aspx
%_PDB% expands to the file name of the actual .pdb file without any path information
For VC6, you might want to continue using the same compilers but a new version of link.exe.
The Windows Driver Kits also come with a tool named binplace.exe which can modify this information post-build.
Related
when building my application some PDB files are generated which are useful during debugging. Now when a user experiences a crash, I get the dump-file and using this I can analyse the problem.
Unfortunately for this the version of the PDB file needs to fit to the build the crashdump was generated from - or in other words, for every release I build I need to store the related PDB in order to have them available for later analysis.
Now I know that MS offers a product named "symbolserver" which does the complete job of storing and managing the PDB files of a build. Unfortunately this is a way too complex solution for me.
So my question: is there an easy to use and simply to handle alternative available for storing multiple versions of a PDB files in order to have them available for crash dump analysis?
Thanks!
Note that you don't need a symbol server, just a directory. See also How to set up a symbol server. With symstore, you only need to set up your symbol path once, save it in the WinDbg workspace or in Visual Studio and you're ready to go.
The alternative is to manage create a folder with version number of your build and move all PDBs there.
The debugging then goes like this (WinDbg):
lm m <yourapp>
to find out the version number
.sympath C:\path\to\symbols\<version>
Similar in Visual Studio: you need to find out the version and then change the symbol path. It's always 2 steps instead of 0.
I know I can call GetFileVersionInfo() windows API to retrieve file version information.
Is there an easier way to determine the version information, from within the program itself?
For example, suppose I am writing codes for Foo.dll, and inside Foo.dll, I want to support a version function, say GetFooVersion(), which reports the version number of Foo.dll.
If I have to use GetFileVersionInfo(), then I need to search which Foo.dll in the path that is been linked (dynamically), and apply GetFileVersionInfo(). It's tedious and error-prone.
The target visual studio version is VS2012.
There is no GetFileVersionInfoByHandle nor GetFileVersionInfoFromModule unfortunately.
You can use FindResource etc. on your own module but you then have to parse the version info yourself because GetFileVersionInfo does not always retrieve the raw resource data (it can translate to/from Unicode etc.).
Another option is to put version #defines in a .h file that your function and your resource.rc can use so you only have to update a single file when the version changes.
I was running a unit-test in Visual Studio today using FakeItEasy. I was offline and found the following symbol-loading to be happening and taking a long time:
My question is, where does the path Z:\Builds\work\... come from and why is Visual Studio trying to load symbols from that path. Could it be that this path corresponds to the CI that the binaries were built on? If so, is it a thing that the maintainer of the library should fix, or something that I must locally configure? I am using the FakeItEasy 1.25.2 binaries that I fetched via NuGet.
I am aware of the fact that you can disable symbol loading (e.g. see this question), but actually I want the symbols to be loaded if possible.
Yes, Z:\Builds\work\… is the path from which TeamCity builds FakeItEasy.
I'm not a big symbol user, so am not sure what you want "fixed". Why are you loading the symbols, and what behaviour would you expect in this case?
If we push the symbols to SymbolSource.org you'd still need to be online to access them, no?
Can you give an example of a NuGet package that behaves how you'd like?
How does it behave in your situation?
PDBs can be built for debug configuration and release configuration and it's typically a good idea to keep them for debugging purposes. FakeItEasy or any other DLL or EXE, contains the full path to the PDB file where it was located during compile time. If that path is part in a DLL (or EXE), Visual Studio will try to load symbols from there.
To see that information, get DebugDir and run debugdir <path to>\FakeItEasy.dll. Or, in any hex editor, search for pdb.
You'll find the full path of the PDB along with some other information. Since it wasn't you who built the DLL, the PDB is not present on your disk and you'd need to download it from a symbol server.
The Sourforge clone of DebugDir contains supports a command line parameter clean which can remove debug information. If you want to get rid of Visual Studio accessing the non-existing Z: drive, you can remove the path to the PDB file.
I have this old VB6 project that is composed of a few DLLs, OCXs, and GUIs.
There is a GUI component that includes this in it's VBP file:
Type=Exe
Reference=*\G{00020430-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}#2.0#0#C:\Windows\SysWOW64\stdole2.tlb#OLE Automation
Object={EAB22AC0-30C1-11CF-A7EB-0000C05BAE0B}#1.1#0; ieframe.dll
Object={3050F1C5-98B5-11CF-BB82-00AA00BDCE0B}#4.0#0; mshtml.tlb
Reference=*\G{64E54C86-D847-48F7-9AE5-D6C9B8E6A3A2}#3.0#0#..\..\bin\Crypt.dll#Crypt
Reference=*\G{B3E7F95C-B6D9-458E-B4D4-5272759B139A}#4.0#0#..\..\bin\SpeechMike.dll#SpeechMike_DLL
Object={831FDD16-0C5C-11D2-A9FC-0000F8754DA1}#2.1#0; MSCOMCTL.OCX
Object={AB4F6C60-4898-11D2-9692-204C4F4F5020}#29.0#0; Ccrpsld.ocx
Object={48E59290-9880-11CF-9754-00AA00C00908}#1.0#0; msinet.ocx
Object={9C526969-AA6E-4D61-BAFA-117FD20C2B38}#3.0#0; SpeechMike.ocx
The Reference settings are a pain since they always change from one machine to the other. I mean, the GUID '9C526969-AA6E-4D61-BAFA-117FD20C2B38', for the last one as an example, will be something on my system, but something else on somebody else's machine.
For now, to make it work, I erase References to Crypt.dll and SpeechMike.dll. Also Object SpeechMike.ocx. Otherwise, Visual studio looks for something that does not exists. Then in "project > references" I check both Crypt and SpeechMike and the Reference goes back to the VBP with the proper GUID and version. Finally, in 'project > components' I add the OCX and I'm good to go.
Am I wrong about that? How can I share the project with some else without going through hoops and loops to start the project?
I'm using MS Visual Basic 6 (part of VS 6 enterprise).
This sounds like "failure to maintain binary compatibility." Normally you only do this to yourself, but of course it can be a bigger headache if multiple people are compiling your libraries from the source Project files.
When you create ActiveX EXEs, DLLs and OCXs you need to create a "base" version where type and class ID values (GUIDs) get assigned. The documentation even suggests that you do this leaving the procedures empty: just a comment line or something so the IDE does not remove the empty declarations.
You don't have to use an "empty" base reference library, it can be one with full code in it.
Once you have compiled this baseline library, you'd exit and save your Project. Then rename this "empty" library as something else and from there keep it along with your Project source files.
After this you re-open the Project and go into Project Properties and on the Component tab change the Compatibility setting to Binary Compatibility and in the box there enter the full path and name of your compiled baseline library. Save the Project. Now you can add code and compile the "real" library to be used by other programs.
When you distribute these libraries (DLLs, OCXs) to somebody else in source code form so that they can compile them you must provide this renamed compiled baseline library along with the source code files, VBP file, resource files, etc.
From there your GUIDs will be stable until you make a change to something that breaks binary compatibility (changing a method's argument list, etc.).
There is more detail on this in the online Help (MSDN Library). See:
Using Visual Basic|Component Tools Guide|Creating ActiveX Components|Debugging, Testing, and Deploying Components|Version Compatibility in ActiveX Components
When I use Visual Studio 2010 to debug a crash dump file (native code), it attempts to load C/C++ source files from the original build folder (and it gives the message "The source file is different from when the module was built. Would you like the debugger to use it anyway?"). The message is correct; the file is not the correct version.
What I would like VS2010 to do is to check out the source file using source server. If the file does not currently exist in its original build location, VS2010 will correctly use source server and retrieve the appropriate revision of the file (from Subversion). In order to force it to check out the correct revision, I have to physically delete the file from the original build location.
As a side note, VS2005 works as desired (well ... as I desire, perhaps not as others desire). VS2005 will always check out the correct revision from source control regardless of whether a copy of the file exists in the original build folder.
I believe the question comes down to one of the following:
Is there some kind of setting available that will change VS2010's precedence for finding source files?
Alternatively, is it possible to make VS2010 offer a choice/option to check out the source file in question? (Currently the only option I see in this situation is to browse for it.)
Or is it possible to completely exclude a specific path (folder) from the search?
I have the same problem with VS2010 and made an attempt to figure it out. I monitored devenv.exe with procmon but didn't see anything out of the order with the files & registry keys it was accessing. Pretty much the same information you see in the error report when VS2010 can't find the source. My solution is to use VS2005 as it works fine. I did see some correspondence on MSDN about a similar (if not the same) bug and they claimed it would be fixed in the final release of 2012. I believe I have that final release of 2012 and it has the same problem.
Here's a maybe slightly complicated solution
1) Create a script that will download and replace the pdb file (a .bat, a python script, whatever)
2) Create a new External Tool within VS2010 (Tools -> External Tools -> Add)
3) Point the tool to your script and pass any project-specific stuff to it as arguments
4) Create a post-build or pre-build step in your project that will call your new External Tool (project properties -> Build Events -> whatever)
This is a lot of work, but at least it will fully integrate it into your building process.
Note: Sometimes I've noticed that my post-build steps won't run unless I've compiled at least on cpp file. I usually press F7 and build some source and then build fully, to make sure everything works as expected.
You can change the local source directory to a different name when you are debugging crash dump file.
Or you can change the build directory to a different path with your local directory.