I have an VC++ exe in Remote (customer end).They are repoterd that crashing has occurred.How to identify the problem cause without using the source code and i want to use only .pdb file to analyse .Please tell me how to use .pdb file for debugging.
A:
As a first step get the crash dump using WIndbg or DebugDiag
Please check with customer whether it is ok to install any of the above mentioned tools and get the dump.
Ask thecustomer to send the dump for the crash of the particular exe that you are saying is crashing.
Next analyse the dump file using windbg or debugdiag in your machine using the right pdb.
please tell if any more information is required. Minimal help for analysing the dump will be given in the help files of windbg or debugdiag itself.
ckv
2010-09-09 06:41:10
I have installed Windbg in my system and also i have .pdb file in release mode now i tried to load the .pdb file via windbg but i'm getting an error says"Win32 error 0n87 The paramneter is incorrect".
2010-09-09 07:05:55
DOnt try to load the pdb. Instead Click on File in windbg and select Open Crash dump and load the crashdump. THis is the thing that you need to analyse. In the file menu in symbol path give the location where your pdb is and reload the dump.
ckv
2010-09-09 07:23:10
How large is the dump file you are trying to load? AFAIK error 0n87 can be a result of too large dump files (e.g. you have too little memory to handle it).
larsw
2010-09-09 07:49:34
The dump file size is 2.5 MB.but while open crash dump i have the option of file type is crash dump files .i'm having the .pdb file in release folder but there it shows no file to select.how to solve this
2010-09-09 08:43:39
I am not sure what you are asking. Were you able to load the dump file. For the pdb just copy your pdb and put in a new folder and point the locaiton in the windbg symbol path.
ckv
2010-09-09 09:27:27
if u don't mind give me ur mail id i'll send the pdb and error message thrown
2010-09-09 09:34:01
A:
Hi,
You can also open dump and mini dump files in Visual Studio as well (Open them with Open Project... and point at the dmp file.) If you have pdb files that is properly indexed, you can often get a proper call stack that will point you to where the error occurred.
You should also check out Windows Error Reporting. If this is commercially available software, I suggest you sign your binary files before deployment. You can then ask the customers to submit errors to Microsoft through their standard Windows Error Reporting Service.
On the other side, you can sign up on their WER portal and identity yourself with the certificate you signed the binaries with. From the portal you can get error statistics and download specific dump files.
If the software runs in an isolated environment - a private domain, you can push out a custom global policy in your active directory, that configures WER to submit dump files to a specific Windows share in your domain where the developers can collect them.
Hope this helps,
--larsw
larsw
2010-09-09 06:52:20