Is it possible to attach two debugger to one process ?
Recently, I had developed a Metro Style App in HTML5/CSS and that was calling a Window Runtime Component written in C#. What I wanted to do was attach two debugger to same process. One at JavaScript & another at C# code.
The Step I followed:
I opened two visual studio instances targeting same solution.
I put a breakpoint in JavaScript code and f5/run the application via VS instance 1.
But, when I tried to attach 2nd debugger in C# window runtime component via VS instance 2 it gives me a dialog saying "Debugger already attached to process".
I've seen a Window Runtime presentation in which the speaker did the same successfully. Kindly, help me out with this.
That's not possible.
See here:
For both managed-only and native-only debugging, you can only attach 1
debugger to a process.
Why?
The native debugger steals debug events
from underneath the managed debugger. This confuses the
managed-debugger and will cause it to crash. The native debugger has
no way of coordinating with the managed-debugger here.
You don't need 2 debuggers to do that. You can use the same debugger to debug both. Just make sure your solution contains both projects and just put your breakpoints where you need them
Related
My company has a program that uses Lua embedded in its runtime, loading up .lua files from disk and executing functions defined in them repeatedly.
Is there a way to attach to the running process and set breakpoints in my .lua files? (I'd accept either gdb-style command-line debugging as part of the Lua distribution, or perhaps a third-party IDE that provides Visual-Studio-like GUI breakpoints.)
Or is what I'm asking for entirely nonsensical and impossible given the nature of the runtime loading up random files from disk?
Edit: Looks like it's not nonsensical, given that Lua's own debug.getinfo() function can determine the source file for a given function, and debug.sethook() allows a callback for each new line of code entered. So, it's reasonable to load source code from disk and be able to tell when the interpreter is executing a particular line of code from that file. The question remains: how do I latch onto an existing process that has a Lua interpreter and inject my own trace function (which can then watch for file/line number pairs and pause execution)?
If you can modify the .lua files, you can insert the following call just before anything you need to debug:
require 'remdebug.engine'.start()
It starts the RemDebug Lua debugger engine and tries to connect to a controller. If it cannot connect, it will just continue running as normal. I did some fixes to the debugger engine, such as dealing with temporary variables, and my student is working on a debugger GUI (due next year).
In the meantime, you can try if Lua Development Tools works for you. It features a debugger similar to RemDebug, which should be possible to set up as follows:
require("debugger")(host, port, idekey)
Alternatively, you can use SciTE-debug, which is an extension to the SciTE editor, and can serve as a controller to RemDebug. Just make sure you insert the call to remdebug.engine.start somewhere in your Lua code and insert this into the SciTE output window:
:debug.target=remote.lua
When you start your program, SciTE should show the source and current line.
I've been using Decoda editor for that. It allows you to attach to a running C++ application, after that it detects that you're running a Lua Interpreter within your C++ code and show your Lua source code, where you can add beakpoints and inspect variables as usual.
This is an alternative I use after much searching. If you have an external executable that loads lua, I got this working in a few minutes. The op is very responsive, it has an interactive debugger which loads your code you can place debug points interactively. It doesn't have an editor, but I use scite or crimson editor and start the executable, one line in your main lua module enables the debugger.
http://www.cushy-code.com/grld/ - this link seems dead now
I've moved to eclipse.org/ldt it has an ide and integrated debugger, recommended
hth
The Lua plugin for IntelliJ has a working debugger with no special setup required other than pointing to your Lua interpreter.
Here's a screencast of it:
http://www.screencast.com/t/CBWIkoZPg
Similar to what Michal Kottman described, I have implemented a debugger based on RemDebug, but with additional fixes and features (on github: https://github.com/pkulchenko/MobDebug).
You can update your .lua file with require("mobdebug").start("localhost", 8171) at the point where you want the debugging to start. You can then use the command line debugger to execute commands, set breakpoints, evaluate/execute expressions and so on.
As an alternative, you can use ZeroBrane Studio IDE, which integrates with the debugger and gives you a front-end to load your code and execute same debugger commands in a nice GUI. If you want to see the IDE in action, I have a simple demo here: http://notebook.kulchenko.com/zerobrane/live-coding-in-lua-bret-victor-style.
You should probably use Decoda.
Go to Debug -> Processes -> Attach to attach your process. This should work fine.
Well the easiest way is this, thanks to the genius author
https://github.com/slembcke/debugger.lua
you don't need to setup a remote debug server ,just require one file,and simplely call dbg() and it will pause,just like gdb
an tutorial is also shipped with it, check it out.
I have a very simple Delphi 2010 dll that I load from a Visiual Studio 2008 C ATL console application (MVF GUI app does not work either). When I debug the console app from the IDE directly - no break points - the output from the application is not correct but when I run the app directly or if I attach to the process with the debugger then it works 100%. Debugging the same dll from a Delphi console app (i.e. running it from the IDE) also works.
The VS debugger seems to break the app depending on how you run it. VS2010 does the same!
I have made 100% sure - several times! - that the data types and calling convention of the dll exports and those in the console app match. I can go into more detail but I don't want to confuse the matter with what may be irrelevant information. Please tell me if I have to go into the specifics of the code if what I have offered is not enough.
Has anyone experienced this sort of thing and know how to fix it?
I've got similar problem once (different behavior in IDE/debugger and in standalone application). It turned out, that I've checked the value of unset variable. Debugger allocated it (always!) in previously used block of memory, such that the value was not empty and the application worked correctly (because only the conditional block was erroneous). However, OS sometimes put the application in empty memory block (filled with 0s), the condition failed and application crashed.
Maybe this is the issue? Try using OutputDebugString()'s to track down values of variables during the library runtime. Without some source code I believe, that it's not easy to say, what might be the reason.
Best regards -- Spook.
If I right click on several files and choose windows context menu, how to send the selected name of files to my program. My program has already running and I dont want my program to be executed again because my program use mutex and uac.
I am using delphi, if you have clues, reference or sample code, really appreciate.
Besides using launcher app like Ignacio suggests you could use DDE to contact already running applications. Another option is writing your own shell extension. You can read more about it here.
Use a helper app that starts the program if necessary, then sends the filenames to be processed via a mailslot.
I want to debug App2.exe, which is started by App1.exe. If App2.exe were a dll I could specify a host application, but this doesn't seem to work with an .exe.
I now use 'attach to process', but this is useless if App2.exe crashes before I do that.
Is there a way to do this with having to attach to the process manually?
Set the "debug spawned processes" debugging option. It is off by default. When App1 starts the new process, the debugger will pause. If the debugger isn't already attached to the new process automatically, attach to it, and then resume running it.
No, but there might be a way to get it to attach properly. Find something that you know will happen in App2 soon before the crash point, and have it pop up a modal dialog box at that point. Then it won't continue until you dismiss it, giving you time to attach the debugger.
I guess you could launch app2.exe yourself and pass any necessary command line parameters to it.
If you're using windows, there is a built in support for it.
basically, you can tell the windows loader to launch some other process whenever a specific process is launched. for example, you can tell windows to always launch winword.exe whenever you click on notepad.exe
you can use this ability in order to automatically launch a debugger whenever you start your process (this is why this feature was originally introduced, however you are not restricted to launch only debuggers :))
You can read exactly how to do it here.
You can also download the debugging tools for windows package and use GFlags to do it for you.
If both apps are yours and you have the code than I propose the following:
Make a debug mode for both apps. Use external inc file for instance
Start two IDEs and load each app in its own IDE. Build in debug mode
If done right you can now debug the internal communication between apps
I have a project where a server spawns multiple exe worker processes that host each its own dll module. I have a debug mode in which I can specify which dll will be loaded and I can have both processes running and communicationt in between from IDEs. It is the best way I have found so far.
I'm finishing an internship at a company and have just been thrown onto this project for the last month where the program is built upon an engine that they "failed" to buy the source code for. Now I've been given the task of finding out why it is failing, on only certain conditions and customer feedback hasn't been great. The main developer for the project is also out on leave for several months.
I have the engine install and know the language it was written in (delphi6?).
note which I have never had to use
I have our products msi.
I'm expected to go through the regular app and pinpoint the problem. I suspect it is something to do with fields not being re-initialized properly.
Is there a way to attach a debugger to the exe to see callstacks and all that hotness?
Any help that would avoid countless use cases would be received gratefully.
You can attach the Delphi debugger to any running process (like all other win32 debuggers out there) but I don't think the experience will be near what you expect. Delphi produces really tight executables which means the info for building human readable callstacks or any kind of "hotness" are simply not there.
Your only chance is in that if your application is a Debug release. In that case, Delphi debugger should help more than a generic debugger.
You might also want to have a look at this thread - Is there a program to decompile Delphi?
In Delphi 2006 (not sure about 6) you can attach the debugger to a running process.
You only get assembler instructions, registers, flags, memory dump and stack (hex). Hope that is enough.
Nice, I tried to attach to the ide/debugger and they disallowed that ;-).