Comment Feed for Channel 9 - 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements http://ecn.channel9.msdn.com/o9/previewImages/100/502643_100x75.jpg Channel 9 - 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements In this episode of 10-4, Jason Olson is joined by Andrew Hall and Brad Sullivan to take a look at some new enhancements and improvements made to the debugger and debugging experience in Visual Studio 2010. [2:10] - Sticky Data Tips[3:13] - Adding more values (including notes) to data tips[4:44] - Breakpoints Window enhancements[8:04] - Export and Import of Breakpoints and Data Tips[10:40] - Threads Window enhancements[14:39] - Dump debugging improvements[24:50] - Integrated IL InterpreterFor more information on the Debugger and to stay up to speed with all sorts of goodness, make sure to check out the Debugger Team's blog. For more information on Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4, make sure to download and check out the latest release of the Visual Studio 2010 Training Kit along with the Visual Studio 2010 Training Course right here on Channel 9.For more 10-4 episodes, be sure to visit:http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4 10-4! Over and out! en Tue, 21 May 2013 14:25:43 GMT Tue, 21 May 2013 14:25:43 GMT Rev9 Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements the datatips are really hot.. is there a what to bake them into the project so that they're presisted without exporting/importing?

posted by aL_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633923609590000000 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:09:19 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633923609590000000 aL_ Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements They are saved as part of the project in the .suo file (which is user specific).  The import/export allows them to be backed up and shared, but they do persist between debugging/visual studio sessions.

posted by Andrew Hall

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633923624680000000 Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:34:28 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633923624680000000 Andrew Hall Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements really? awsome Smiley

 

now the only thing thats missing is a reflector style disassembly of code that has no symbols Smiley

posted by aL_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924126810000000 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:31:21 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924126810000000 aL_ Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements Great quality on the recording, on this laptop the fullscreen is like sitting at the machine it was recorded on. Although I'd love to be able to sign-in and comment without interrupting playback. Grrr...

posted by LukePuplett

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924160360000000 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:27:16 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924160360000000 LukePuplett Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements Is it possible to create managed mini-dump programmatically for later analysis (e.g. in catch block of exception handling routine)???

posted by mjurek

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924484340000000 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:27:14 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924484340000000 mjurek Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements This might be covered somewhere else, or maybe I totally missed it, but when I get out of debug mode and go back into edit mode, I lose the info in the command window. 9 times out of ten I have important info in there that I need in edit mode (variable values, test code, etc. ) and I have to copy/paste it into notepad before stopping debug mode. Will we be able to keep Command Window open, with the info displayed, while in edit mode? Thanks.

posted by bischofb

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924584870000000 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:14:47 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924584870000000 bischofb Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements ths is something i'd also like to do Smiley

my app might throw a minor error that dont bring dowwn the whole app but i'd still like to be able to debug later. also, are the mini dumps saved somewhere locally? if an app crashes it asks if i want to send the dump to you, but i'd like to be able to look at the dump my self Smiley

 

also there seem to be some bugs with the data tips, when i try to erase (with backspace) or move the cursor with the arrows, the change is made in the actual code, not in the data tip.. perhaps you know about this already Smiley

posted by aL_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924616370000000 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:07:17 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924616370000000 aL_ Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements aL_, the answer to your question is at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787181(VS.85).aspx"> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787181(VS.85).aspx

 

That article describes how you can collect local dumps for yourself to troubleshoot, instead of sending dumps of your custom programs to Microsoft, never to be heard from again. I should also mention that this is effectively the replacement for Dr. Watson on Vista and Windows 7 (and of course their Server counterparts).

 

Corrector

 

posted by Corrector

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924621670000000 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:16:07 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924621670000000 Corrector Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements This is not exactly what I am looking for, I need this for managed apps and the article you pointed out says "Applications that do their own custom crash reporting, including .NET applications, are not supported by this feature."

What I would like is: When there is an exception in my app, create mini-dump and display "Sorry, error" to end user.

posted by mjurek

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924870820000000 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:11:22 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924870820000000 mjurek Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements cool, thanks Smiley

however like mjurek my apps are managed, and also [to my dismay] the client computers are only running xp :/

is there another way? perhaps you coulh start windbg programatically and have it capture a dump?

posted by aL_

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924922020000000 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:36:42 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633924922020000000 aL_ Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements Probably the easiest way is to launch the sysinternals 'ProcDump' tool (see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd996900.aspx) passing your process id on the command line. You may want to do this from an AppDomain.UnhandledException event, or from an exception filter written in IL/VB. If you write out the dump from a catch block, the original variables will be lost, though you will still have acess to any variables viewable from the catch block.

 

The alternative to creating ProcDump/WinDbg is to P/Invoke to dbghelp!MiniDumpWriteDump. However, its not reliable to write a minidump file of your own process (calling MiniDumpWriteDump with hProcess/ProcessId = GetCurrentProcess()/GetCurrentProcessId()), and you will likely find the P/Invokes harder to get correct then a call to System.Diagnostics.Process.Start.

posted by greggm

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633927789660000000 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:16:06 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633927789660000000 greggm Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements If you're running you application while debugging with Visual Studio, another option would be to automatically create the dumps using macros.

 

Here's a simple example of how to create a macro that will create a dump on an unhandled exception:

1)  Got to Tools -> Macros -> Macros IDE

2)  In Project Explorer, open MyMacros ->EnvironmentEvents

3)  In the left drop-down (will say "(General)" by default), select DebuggerEvents

4)  In the right drop-down, select OnExceptionNotHandled.  This will create a new subroutine called DebuggerEvents_OnExceptionNotHandled.

5)  Add the following code to the subroutine:

        MsgBox("Unhandled Exception, writing out a minidump")

        Dim dbg As EnvDTE80.Debugger2

        dbg = DTE.Debugger

        dbg.WriteMinidump("c:\dumps\macrodump.dmp", EnvDTE80.dbgMinidumpOption.dbgMinidumpNormal)

 

You can customize this to meet your needs.  For example, you could add some logic to make it only write out dumps under certain conditions.  You could write out a dump with heap by replacing dbgMinidumpNormal with dbgMinidumpFull.  Or you could have this routine run OnExceptionThrown instead of OnExceptionNotHandled (again, adding some conditions on when to write the dump).

 

I hope that helps.  It's always better to create a dump file from out of process.  While a call to dbghelp.dll!MiniDumpWriteDump on your own process won't fail, you may end up with a bad dump.  There are a few reasons for this.  The first is that the faulting process if often not in such a good state to begin with and any complicated call might fail.  If you're only worried about minor issues, then this may not apply here.  The second is that it will have a hard time getting the stack information correct for the calling thread.  For this reason, it is suggested that you spin off a seperate worker thread that will make the call to write out the dump.

posted by brads

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633928053400000000 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:35:40 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633928053400000000 brads Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements I like having the time line provided next to the video.  Any chance of adding a way to jump directly to that part of the video?

posted by dshue

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633939163620000000 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:12:42 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633939163620000000 dshue Re: 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements The sample application used in this video is available for download from: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsdbg10stockanalyzer

posted by Andrew Hall

]]> http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633978973810000000 Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:03:01 GMT http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-34-Debugger-Enhancements-and-Improvements#c633978973810000000 Andrew Hall