Within a Visual Studio (2005/2008) Project I'd like to use an open source library. I'd like to link to the binaries so that I'm not responsible for a proper build and can check those binaries into the source control server (SVN).
So far so good, but if I'd like to debug into the open source library or want to take a look at a class implementation I would be forced to add the the source of the project into my solution and than link my project to the source instead of the binaries.
Is it possible to tell Visual Studio a location of the source of a linked binary library so that things like "go to definition" and debug is working?
Absolutely, if you have the pdb symbols its all done for you - look at MFC for example, you get the binaries yet can debug through the source.
If you don't have the symbols, then its a lot more complicated, when you debug through the code it may ask you to show it the source lines, and you'll just have to find them for it (usually the path is the same so its easy).
There are multiple ways you can achieve this.
Like gbjbaanb suggested you can use pdb symbols. It's going to work for both managed an unmanaged code.
If you're using .NET you can debug with Reflector. Oran Dennison wrote how to debug with Reflector and Visual Studio. One of my favorite tools is TestDriven.NET. Author of this tool, Jamie Cansale, also blogged about how to debug with Reflector when you have TestDriven.NET. In his article, Jamie has a link to screencast where he demonstrates how to do it step by step.
Last, if you use for your SVN client like TortoiseSVN, you can add files/directories from check in. More details how to Ignore Files and Directories with TortoiseSVN.
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I've included a NuGet package (Edge.js) that I would like to debug by stepping into the source code. When I "step in" it "steps over". I'm guessing this is because there are no symbol file to step in to. Possibly the EdgeJS package was published without sources and this could be the reason. However I don't know how to verify if a NuGet package contains the pdb symbols.
It might also be that I failed configuration of Visual Studio but because I don't know if the NuGet package contains symbols I don't know which way to look.
Thanks for any help
Nuget supports creating packages that contain PDB and source files with the nuget pack -Symbols command. Usually, these packages are uploaded to symbolsource.org for open source projects. Visual Studio can be configured to use symbolsource.org during debugging, see this guide.
However, not every open source project uploads symbol packages to symbolsource.org, so you have to check whether Edge.js does (I don't know that library).
If Edge.js does not provide symbol packages, your options are as follows:
Download the edge.js sources and build locally with debug symbols. Copy the DLL and the PDB to the output folder of your application and start debugging.
Use a decompiler. You don't get as much information as with the debug symbols and source files, but it may suffice for your case. The decompiler that ships with Resharper (commercial tool) is pretty useful for debugging DLLs in this manner.
You can't "step-into" anything if you don't have the source code. Debug symbols won't help in this case.
You can step-into the decompiled code only by using third-party tools like RedGate's Reflector or Telerik's JustCode that decompile the IL on the fly and generate C# code for viewing purposes. These tools don't need the debug symbols to work, although they can use them to make the decompiled code more presentable.
In Eclipse, it's possible to "match" a zip archive (or a folder) containing sources to a compiled jar. This allows the debugger to do source-stepping on the associated sources with relatively low ceremony.
I'd like to do something similar in Visual Studio, given a dll, its associated pdb and the source code in some form.
The problem I'm trying to fix is that I'm creating a tools library that is delivered to QA in binary form and used in different projects (made of automatically generated code, FWIW). The QA engineers then need to be able to do source stepping inside the library method calls.
A related problem is, the QA engineer can't use "Go to definition" on a library method in the VS editor while not debugging.
For problem #1, the QA engineer currently needs to get the appropriate sources from the SVN server and manually specify their location to the debugger.
From what I can tell, in Visual Studio (and other debuggers) the traditional way is to use a symbol server which would provide both the pdbs and the sources, having only the library dll as input.
I know about SymbolSource.org - it uses 'NuGet symbol packages' (which I currently generate) but management won't agree to host off-site. I had a feeble attempt to set up their free source server offering locally, without much success.
So... is there an easier way (a la Eclipse)?
I wrote a tool that many users would use on their computers. I noticed however, that users who do not have visual studio installed, cannot open my executable. The error says that msvcp100.dll is missing. I found in internet a redistributable package from microsoft, that should apparently provide these dlls. My question is: is there another way to bypass this problem? Something like an option in the project properties?
Yes, you can change a compiler setting to link the C++ standard library classes into your program instead of having a dependency on the DLL. Right-click your project in the Solution Explorer window, Properties. Switch to the Release configuration (upper left). C/C++, Code Generation, Runtime Library setting. Select /MT.
Only do this when you only have a single monolithic EXE. When you use your own DLLs then you really need msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll so that the runtime library gets shared between all modules.
It is part of C++ runtime and the target machine needs it. THere are couple of ways to address it.
Please check following link from Microsoft MCVCP100.DLL
I am creatinig Managed Extensibility Framework extensions for some program. That program uses dll files witch i create. I dont have visual studio project of that program, but i have that program. I can run these extensions using that program, but cant debug them properly.
Is it possible to use visual studio debugger to debug my code?
I found solution to this, thanks!
I found solution to this by my self, but thanks for sugestions.
I can use that app for which i am creating this extension, class libary project.
I press properties on project, then select debug tab and set "start external programm" an set it o that main app. then i press f5 and that app starts and when it uses my extension i can debug it using visual studio debugger. And i forgot to tell that i am creating this in C#.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/68c8335t.aspx
I believe what you are looking for can be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0bxe8ytt.aspx
According to this article, you could use the "Add Existing Project" dialog in you solution (for your DLL) to add the executable that you do not have the solution for. Because you are using MEF, it might get a bit tricky and you might want to create a new solution for debugging instead. However, this seems to be the general way to handle your situation. Since you have the source code for your DLL, I believe it should allow you to step through your code fully at the very least.
Note: You will need to make sure you have Visual C++ installed in your development environment.
If you are trying to debug the assembly code, then you can use the technique discussed by #BiggsTRC, if you are simply trying to identify why parts aren't being loaded, you could consider looking at the Composition Analysis Tool (mefx). This is a command-line tool for analysing a set of parts and finding out where failures may occur during composition.
Just maybe trivial, maybe stupid question.
I have two solutions:
1) The main app
2) The sets of libraries
The first solution is accessible via the SourceSafe with the dll files(from the 2 solution) placed in its lib directory.
In order to debug the main app with the ability to jump to the source code of the libraries from the 2 solution Do i have to add the projects from 2 to 1? And Is it the only one option?
Even if I added (if it is possible to add with omitting certain projects in the SC) projects from 2 to 1 solution, I would have to change dll references in the app which is controlled via SourceSafe and I would mess it up for my colleagues.
What Can I do?
To debug all you need is that all third-party dlls have their corresponding pdb in the same directory. When you step into a third-party function for which you have pdb, Visual Studio will prompt you for the source, At this time you may browse to a local or network share where you have a the third-party source.
The place I used to work for used .NET Reflector to step through external DLLs. It's a Visual Studio add-on that uses reflection to allow you to debug through the source code of .NET binaries (actually their MSIL reversed equivalents) and is pretty simple and efficient when it comes to non-obfuscated code.