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Trace.Assert not breaking, neither showing the message box

Answer 1

A:

I have seen something like this before, a workaround that worked at the time was to add an if statement with the same condition as the assert, but negated, combined with a breakpoint set in the debugger on a statement in the then block of the if.

rsp 2009-11-18 16:36:32

Answer 2

+2 A:

You can do this on a AppDomain-wide basis (Application-wide basis if your application has only one AppDomain) by writing your own TraceListener.

First create a class library project MyTraceListeners.dll containing an ExceptionTraceListener class:

public ExceptionTraceListener : TraceListener
{
  public override void Write(string message)
  {
    // Do nothing
  }
  public override void Fail(string message)
  {
    Debugger.Break();  // or if you prefer, throw new Exception(...)
  }
  public override void Fail(string message, string detailMessage)
  {
    Debugger.Break();  // or if you prefer, throw new Exception(...)
  }
}

Now you can register this TraceListener in your application's .config file in the usual way:

<configuration>
  ...
  <system.diagnostics>
    ...
    <trace>
      <listeners>
        <clear />
        <add name="myListener" type="ExceptionTraceListener, MyTraceListeners" />
      </listeners>
    </trace>
  </system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

When you run your app with these .config file entries in place, the debugger will break immediately on every failed assertion.

Note also the <clear /> in this config file to clear any default TraceListeners listed in Machine.config. This is important because the default TraceListeners will receive the call before yours and still pop up the MessageBox.

Ray Burns 2009-11-19 00:28:34

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Trace.Assert not breaking, neither showing the message box

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