I dynamically load Silverlight class library projects on demand. (DLLs in a zip).
This is not the problem...the problem seems to be that I have to manually copy the pdb file(s) of those loaded assemblies (the assemblies belong all to the same VS solution) into the debug(output) folder of the main Silverlight application for debugging. If I don't do this, Visual Studio does not hold on breakpoints of those dynamically loaded assemblies.
I really hope I make something wrong here and not that I have to create a post-build script, which does that 'copy pdb job'.
Thanks for feedback.
Related
I'm trying to debug some of the examples provided in the Maya API SDK.
Building the DLL with Visual Studio 2010 in debug mode worked fine, and the plugin, once loaded into Maya, worked fine.
However after attaching, Visual Studio complains about cannot find or open the PDB file.
I ignored those warning and set some break points, but clearly VS does not break.
Regarding building plugins and debugging by attaching them to Maya, I've read:
https://alliance.seas.upenn.edu/~cis660/wiki/index.php?title=Debug_CPP_Plugin
http://devmaster.net/forums/topic/6965-how-to-debug-a-plugin/
http://www.creativecrash.com/forums/api/topics/help-33-how-do-i-debug-my-plugin
On SE, I have read the following suggestions:
Why is Visual Studio 2010 not able to find/open PDB files?
PDB does not match image Error
Visual Studio 2010 "Cannot find or open the PDB file"
In particular, I tried:
making sure that the plugin that I am loading into Maya is the one that I just built;
verifying that the PDB has the same name, is in the same folder, has been created at
the same time than the DLL;
loading manually the PDB ("A matching symbol was not found");
activating the Symbol Server in VS (fine, but I got only the Microsoft ones obviously)
Usually, putting the pdb in the same folder will always work - however, the times where this doesn't is usually because your dll is being loaded from elsewhere in the path and its not actually running the dll you think it is (at least, that's what happens to me).
Once your app is running, try and delete the dll - if you can, its not loaded. Or you can look at the path in the modules window in VS. That will also give a clue to why its not loaded and give you the option to manually load symbols from anywhere on disk.
I am using VS 2010 professional [64bit - Windows 7] and in my solutions, i have 3 class library project and 1 wcf service projects are there. All these dll's are refereneced in my WPF applications. For the last 1 year, it was working fine and i was able to debug the all the referenced projects. But from yesterday itself, debug is not working all of a sudden.
When I put a break point on a class in the wcf project, it says breakpoints cannot hit as the source file is different from....etc.
When I checked in the Debug --> Windows ---> Modules window, all those projects dlls are not seen there and says no pdb files are available ???
But in the WPF bin\Debug folder, i have all the referenced dlls and their pdb are ther.
What could be the problem ?
Even I am not able to debugg the wpf project as well. For getting break point or debug, each time i have to clean the solution or project then rebuild it again. Then i will be able to debug the WPF project.
In the case of referenced dlls, I removed the dlls and added the new compiled dll again and copied that pdb files to the wpf project exe folder. Still no use !!!!
I have changed the options in the Debug and Options [disabling and enabling the Just my code options etc]. But still it is not working.
This is not only my problem. One of my colleague also have this problem we took the whole latest solution code from TFS. SO I changed the Local code path to a new folder and took the latest code from TFS again. Still the problem exists !!
I am able to run the application. But debug is not working. In the WPF project, all those dlls are referenced properly.
Can anyone help us ???
I guess I don't have enough points to comment to ask specifics, so this may or may not solve your problem but I'll take a crack at it. Also, there appear to be other questions about this. So I would check those out first to see if they will help.
This question was solved by adding configuration to tell the program which version of the framework to use during debugging.
Why doesn't VS2010 debugger stop at my breakpoints?
Why does Visual Studio 2008 skip over my break points?
If those don't help, I'll give it a go.
When I put a break point on a class in the wcf project, it says breakpoints cannot hit as the source file is different from....etc.
This sounds like it could be one of the following issues:
Remote debugging and Visual Studio does not know where to load the symbols from or they are out-of-date
Need to clean and rebuild (which you seem to be doing)
The server you are running your WCF service on is not getting the updated DLLs and PDB files. If it's IIS Express, try killing the process between builds.
Also, make sure you are building in Debug mode and not Release mode. While building Release mode will generate the PDB files if it's set to do so which will allow you to debug an application, the code may be optimized as well which can cause breakpoints to be missed.
I remember being able to do this but I must have changed something as I can no longer view an external projects source even though the pdb is with the reference. I can step into external functions when debugging but I can't go to them using "Go to implementation/declaration"
This will work if you have a separate class library Project as a part of your Solution, and you added a reference to the Project, not the compiled .dll.
You cannot step into a .dll when debugging.
It's all in how you add the reference.
I have installed the strong named assembly TestReflection into the GAC (I am using .NET 4.0 and VS 2010).
Different versions of the TestReflection DLL are in GAC of .NET 4.0 (C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_32\TestReflection\), however, the assembly does not appear in the "Project" -> "Add reference" box of VS 2010.
How can I refer to my assembly deployed in GAC at design time from another project?
This page says that:
You cannot add references from the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), as it is strictly part of the run-time environment.
Referring to this statement, I would like to know how to make your project's DLL shared assembly for other consumers if it's the requirement?
The dll's shown in the .Net tab of the "Add references" dialog are not actually the ones registered in the GAC. They are found by searching a few paths on your filesystem.
The paths being searched are located by Visual Studio by looking up the following registry entries:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NetFramework\{Version}\AssemblyFoldersEx\
There should be some keys added there already, so if you want your own dll to show up on the .Net tab, you can add it to one of the folders defined there. You could also add a new registry key pointing to a custom folder, which would only contain your own dll's.
The GAC is only meant for loading assemblies at runtime after your application has been deployed, so I don't think you should use it while developing. When you deploy your app, make sure to set "Copy local" to false on your reference so the dll won't be copied to the bin folder, and then install it into the GAC and it will be loaded from there instead.
Another simple option would be to manually edit the project file as XML in visual studio (You will have to unload the project first), and simply add node <Reference Include="<name of dll>" /> in MSBuild project file. After reloading the project, VS will pick up the reference without problem.
If you want to add Global Assembly Cache references to your VS2010 project, there is an extension you can use: Muse.VSExtensions.
It has some quirks but does a decent job. Check it out...
The answer is the Reference Paths in the property windows, you have to set it with the GAC path
Please see my post here:
In VS 2010 express there are a few library projects (dlls) attached to the application project. When building the solution the dlls output to bin/Release/. Is there a way to have the .exe output to bin/Release and the dlls to bin/Release/dll?
This requires either a .config file with the <probing> element or implementing AppDomain.AssemblyResolve so that the CLR can find these DLLs. You'll have a deployment problem too, you have to convince ClickOnce to publish these DLLs. Realistically should only attempt this with the retail edition of Visual Studio so you can create a Setup project.
Fwiw: your customer won't mind that the DLLs are in the same folder as the EXE. I think most actually strongly prefer this. I do.
You could always have a post build event on the application project that copies all .dll files to a dll directory.
However the assembly loader will not be able to find the dll file and you application will not start.