Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

re: Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

Mike Stall - MSFT — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:04:17 GMT

GP - that's some good blog fodder. Stay tuned...

The debugger is not just an extension to BCL + Reflection

Mike Stall's .NET Debugging Blog — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:00:23 GMT

Don't have your non-debugger app use the debugging services just to get some cool functionality. The

re: Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

GP — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:35:50 GMT

What about the /debug:pdbonly /optimize csc.exe switches (Default "Release" Configuration von VS 2005 for C# Projects)? How deals the C# Compiler with the above issues when building the Module and the Symbol-File?

When a Application is lauched from a Debugger it may be possible to disable Optimization that would be made by the JIT-Compiler.

But what happens when a Debugger is attached to an already running Application? Methods may be already JITted (and optimized) and the CLR may be in a (internal) state that makes it impossible to start all over without loosing "public" state. So the Symbols will not match in some cases (maybe inlined functions). Or am I wrong?

This would be a very interesting Subject for another Blog-Entry: "/debug:pdbonly and /debug:full Symbols compared"

Interesting Finds: October 6, 2007

Jason Haley — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:12:43 GMT

re: Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

Mike Stall - MSFT — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 01:22:20 GMT

Hi Russ. I guess my posts are finally starting to get technical enough again :)

Re using wrong PDBs: yeah, that's disasterous. Fortunately there's pretty good matching support for a debugger to use (asame with source files).

re: Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

Russell Osterlund — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:31:47 GMT

Nice post.

Many of the reasons that you cite have convinced me that in the long run it is better to debug optimized (production) builds at the disassembly level. I would also suggest that much of the disorientation arises in those whose debugging experience is almost solely at the source code level. Finally, the occasions when you think you are using the correct PDB's, but in fact they do not match the binary are almost worse than having no PDB's in the first place -- you are lulled into a false sense of security.

Techy News Blog » Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds.

Techy News Blog » Why debugging breaks in optimized (production) builds. — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 19:20:38 GMT

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