So in a C# .NET v4 project in VS2010, I've got a debugging issue. Frequently, if not most of the time, the debugger freezes when you try to use it - typically on exceptions, it's usually OK if you try to manually break.
The only way I've discovered to fix this is to kill the debugged program ([projectname].vshost.exe), which unlocks the IDE and executes all the mouse presses and things that happened in its absence.
The main Windows GUI is not affected. There is minimal CPU load. Waiting does nothing. The output window (full of "Loaded xxx, symbols loaded") is uneventful. I've read about symbol servers deadlocks, or deadlocks in the GUI, but neither of those are the issue here (the symbol servers are disabled).
Anyone have any ideas? This is giving me a big problem, because I can't effectively debug the program.
Unfortunately, this could be any number of things.
Most often, I've had this type of thing happen when the program is caught in an infinite loop... but since yours is breaking on exceptions, maybe you could add some exception handling?
Never did figure this out. Oh well. Limped by with task manager open all summer, but made it through OK.
Related
I have the following bug in a program:
An MDI MFC program closes silently on Windows 7 (terminates the process without prompting to save changes and without displaying any "crash" dialog) when the user performs this operation : Click a context menu item.
But this happens only on that PC, at least, for the moment. No other PC has encountered that problem. However the bug can always be reproduced following the same steps but only on that PC.
I want to know the reason but probably the customer won't allow me to install many programs to debug, so I need to be able to log when the program terminates, or print the stack in Release version but I'm quite lost.
I had faced a similar bug before and eventually I fixed it logging line by line and changing the problematic part, but I guess there are much better ways to find bug reasons than this.
I have tried on my development PC to create minidumps on Release mode but if there is no exception thrown on that PC, (I haven't confirmed that yet, though...) maybe it's pointless.
Also used an available class on codeproject (Stackwalker) but I don't manage to print all the function calls. Only on simple console programs, but not on MDI or even SDI.
Any ideas on how to find out the reason? Thanks in advance.
VS2010 hangs for several minutes after debug starts, after that debugging continues as usual. I have no idea what it's doing, Process Explorer says the debugged process is in suspended state during that hang and Visual Studio doesn't seem to write anything to disk except a few kB at the end of the hang.
There was no such hang for over eight months in any of my projects, it started yesterday.
UPD: Resetting all settings cured a lot of problems including this hang. I still don't know what it was, but resetting works magic.
I've noticed this as well and have determined that one of the causes is any code that uses interrupts or timers. Allegro 4.x (no comment on 5.x as I have not used it yet) is a big offender. Simply including and calling the global initialization method for the timer routines will cause this to happen.
From time to time I see that debugger doesn't honor breakpoints at all, mostly when there are threads involved. Is this a known problem? If not I'll try to create a repro.
FYI a locked MDB file is causing this behaviour. Filled a bug report:
https://bugzilla.xamarin.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5608
I guess that your IDE is just not attached to those process which works at the moment when you see no stop on breakpoints. Look at this Walkthrough: Debugging a Multithreaded Application to see how to do that safely.
Hope that helps,
I have a complex C# project that I ported over from C++ and now I'm in the middle of debugging. Things are working great most of the time but more often than not I have huge problems with Visual Studio and debugger attached to WP7 emulator. For some strange reasons, my debug session is often abruptly terminated while stepping through the code without any indication from VS or any trace left in the Output window.
There are even some cases when a breakpoint is hit and then when I hover over a particular variable, VS simply exits the current debugging session. If I refrain from inspecting the variable contents, nothing happens and VS waits happily forever.
As the app is a memory hog by definition, I am wondering whether I am hitting any debugger / WP7 / emulator limits of any kind. Why would a mouse over variable terminate debugging session? Most of all, why is there no trace of what happened? I am left to wonder whether this is a VS issue or an emulator issue or even an app issue.
What are your computer specs?
I have seen similar problems on computers with low specs, especially computers with low memory.
Try clearing out memory hogs from your PC (CCleaner is a good tool) and running Visual Studio in administrator mode.
I have found this post which has helped me immensely. It appears that having ToString() overrides can sometimes crash the debugging session. I have implemented mine for the sole purpose of having customized value representation of variables/values in the debugger.
After removing all the ToString() overrides I am able to debug normally again. The thing that still puzzles me is the fact that no exceptions are leaked from my ToString() overrides so I wonder why debugger behaves the way it does but at least the problem is solved for now.
I hope this helps someone.
I have a VB app that I need to monitor while it is running. I added some variables to the Watch window, but while the app is running the watch window is greyed out. The only way that I have found to see the variable values is to use Debug -> Break All, but this stops the program.
I have used other IDEs and they allow active variables to be monitored. Is this possible in VS?
Sorry if this is a noob question.
UPDATE: To be clear, my app is communicating with a piece of lab equipment and and as data is sent or received or errors are detected counters are incremented. I would like to watch these counters but I don't want to build a screen to do this since they are for debugging. I just assumed that this is basic functionality in any IDE
SHOCKED: It seems that Visual Studio does not offer this (what I would consider) basic functionality. For those that seem to think that this is not possible with an interpreted language, consider this thought experiment. If you pressed Break All quickly followed by a Continue then you would refresh the watch window - correct? Why then can't Visual Studio do this as a single Refresh Watch command or better yet allow this function to automatically run at a period specified by the user. No debug writes, no log files, no stopping your program mid-stream and creating timeouts. I am just shocked that you cannot do this. Its a little like not having breakpoints.
Which IDE or development environment shows - in real time - the values of variables in the Watch window, without having to hit any breakpoints, while the application is running?
Visual Studio doesn't provide this. In order to get updated values in the Watch window, or edit items there, the app needs to be at a breakpoint or debugging.
After you've done "break" to give control of the program to the debugger, then you can "step" through the code using function keys like F10 and F11. During each 'step', the program evaluates one or more statements; after each step it stops (until the next step), and while (only while) it's stopped you can 'watch' its current state.
There are other ways too to break into the debugger (to use the Watch window while the program is stopped): other ways like to set 'breakpoints', and use the 'run to cursor' feature.
Of course, but stopping a program that is actively receiving or sending data to a some other process, driver, etc, stops this communication and causes timeouts and other problems.
That's true. To watch values change in real-time, I use a log file:
Add statements to my code, such that when I change the value of a variable I emit a new line to a log file (showing the changed value)
Run the program
Watch new lines being appended to the log file using a utility like tail -f.
I've never see a debugger with the functionality you mention. The closest thing to the functionality you mentioned (and which isn't exactly the functionality you mentioned) is How to: Set a Data Breakpoint (Native Only).
What you're attempting to do is not possible in Visual Studio. All of the variable inspection windows (watch, locals, autos, etc ...) rely on the debugee process being in a break state in order to function.
This is true of essentially any debugger I've worked with in the past. At least those which use a compiled language.
I'm curious as to what IDE's you're referring to? Did they deal with interpreted languages?
Make sure you are in "Debug" build and Microsoft Debugger is running as a service and not blocked/disabled.
This should help you: How to trace and debug in Visual C++ .NET and in Visual C++ 2005
my 88 year old memory remembers an old version of visual studio allowing a watch window to function while debugging.
OK, just me.