How to get stack trace of a running process from within a Visual Studio add-in?

Question

I am writing a Visual Studio add-in in C# which will run while I am debugging a process in the same Visual Studio window and I need access to that the process' stack trace from within my add-in. I tried putting this code into my add-in but it returns the add-in's stack trace, not the process I am debugging.

System.Diagnostics.StackTrace stacktrace = new System.Diagnostics.StackTrace(true); System.Diagnostics.StackFrame stackframe = stacktrace.GetFrame(0);

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

The code is working as expected since when you call the code, your add-in (under VS) is the "current process".

I am not sure what you mean by "currently running process" (do you mean the process being run/debugged under VS?), but I don't think its possible to get a stack-trace of another process.

Answer 2

The easiest way would be to ask the debugger for the stack frames through the DTE automation object. The DTE object should be available to you through your add-in. The property you want is Debugger.CurrentThread.StackFrames. If you're using .NET 4, you can do:

    static string GetCurrentStackTrace(DTE dte)
    {
        bool canGetStackTrace =
            (dte != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger.CurrentThread != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger.CurrentThread.StackFrames != null);

        if (!canGetStackTrace)
            return string.Empty;

        return string.Join(
            "\n",
            dte.Debugger.CurrentThread.StackFrames.Cast<StackFrame>().Select(f => f.FunctionName)
        );
    }

Otherwise, you can do:

    static string GetCurrentStackTrace(DTE dte)
    {
        bool canGetStackTrace =
            (dte != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger.CurrentThread != null) &&
            (dte.Debugger.CurrentThread.StackFrames != null);

        if (!canGetStackTrace)
            return string.Empty;

        StringBuilder stackTrace = new StringBuilder();

        foreach (StackFrame frame in dte.Debugger.CurrentThread.StackFrames)
        {
            stackTrace.AppendFormat("{0}\n", frame.FunctionName);
        }

        return stackTrace.ToString();
    }

The painful and involved way would be to use ICorDebug and StackWalk64 to get managed and native stacks separately and then stitch them together by hand. Since you're a VS add-in, you might as well let the debugger do the heavy lifting for you!