.net调试打印输出中“未加载符号”是什么意思

Question

I am trying to debug an exe that runs in visual studio but crashes in the server environment. When it crashes, the server gives me a chance to 'debug' it in visual studio--which spits out a printout with a long list of lines that read 'no symbols loaded.' What does this mean? What are the 'symbols' it is trying to load?

Here are the first two lines of the crash printout:

'AutoMatcher.exe': Loaded 'PathToMyExe\\MyExecutables.exe', No native symbols in symbol file. - 'AutoMatcher.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\ntdll.dll', No symbols loaded.

many more like this... ending 'no symbols loaded'

Answer 1

"Symbols" in this context means the function-dereferencing index stored in the [AssemblyName].PDB file. Debugging symbols are used to generate detailed stack traces in the event of an exception. Production-release code is deployed without debugging files/symbols for performance and security reasons.

When developing a .NET application, the debugging symbols for your managed code are built when you build in Debug mode. However, symbols for OS-level functions are not installed by default. If you're doing OS-level calls and want to be able to debug the OS, the Windows debugger symbols are available at MSDN .

Answer 2

这意味着调试器不知道该DLL中的任何函数名称（“符号”）。

Answer 3

Visual Studio Symbol files are files with .pdb extensions that are produced by the linker when an executable (DLL or .EXE or other types) is built.

Having matching .pdb files is essential for debugging as these files contain, among other streams of information, association between assembly code and source-code lines.

You can find more information on .pdb files here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/121366

To debug your server-side scenario you need to copy .pdb files from your build onto the server.