C# Remote Debugger - Cannot find or open the PDB file

Question

I'm trying to remote debug my application (C# windows application) according to Remote Debugging , I installed the Remote Tools on my remote machine, say it's RA , and I added permission for the machine I want to debug the application, say it's B .

I open VS in B , Click Debug->Attach to Process..., choose 'Remote =(no authenticated) in Transport, then click the Find button and I can find the machine RA . When I selected this machine and choose the application I'm going to debug, but when I attach it, there's a lot log messages showing that Cannot find or open the PDB file .

Since we need the pdb files to debug on our local machine, then how remote debugging find the pdb files? Or I didn't have it configured correctly on RA ?

Answer 1

Confirm yourself that you can access the pdb files, located on RA, from B. First step is to make a network share of the directory where the pdb's are located on RA. Second step is to open a windows explorer on B and navigate to that specific network share. For example: \\\\RA-MACHINE\\PDB-DIR. Log in with the correct credentials (RA-DOMAIN\\RA-USER, RA-PWD) and tell it to remember your credentials for subsequent logins. The pdb-files should show up in the windows explorer. Configure where the debugger looks for symbol files, as described [ here ] and remote debugging should work.

Answer 2

According to https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/x54fht41(v=vs.100).aspx

By default, the debugger loads symbol files from the location where your EXE is located. To use symbols from another directory or a symbol server, you must specify the locations to Visual Studio.

Answer 3

If you use Azure pipelines with VS 2022 and your.pdb file is present in your web app, you have to publish manually in VS with a profile and then attach the debugger. I tried to get my pipeline to update the.pdb file but was unsuccessful. I never had this issue with VS 2019.