I've been writing a program that serves in two primary parts- managed UI and native back-end (C# and C++). However, suddenly, Visual Studio thinks that when I try to run the solution, I'm tryng to run the native back-end (a DLL) and throws an error. When I start the exe manually, it won't break on my breakpoints, and suchlike - even though I've enabled mixed debugging. How can I set it back to the original settings- mixed mode debugging and start the managed .exe when launching? I'm in Visual Studio 2010.
I think that this is probably caused because I had a blue-screen in the middle yesterday, and this is the first serious work I've done on it since.
It sounds like you just need to set the managed project as the startup project in Visual Studio.
Open Solution Explorer
Right click on the project and select "Startup Project"
Related
I have been stump in this problem for a few hours now. I hope someone has had a similar problem to this.
We have developed a prototype .Net(C#) dll using VS2010, and would like to be able to call this dll in a both C# applications and VB6 application.
My question is:
Is it possible to debug a VB6 application that is calling a .Net dll? I get an error message "Automation Error The system cannot find the file specified"
The error message suggests that there is something missing for my VB6 app to find the .Net dll.
I am aware that if the VB6 application has been compiled, and the .exe has been created, the VB6 will successfully call the .Net dll functionality when using the .exe
However it is important that we can debug through our VB6 application. Unfortunately debugging does not allow you to step over the line of code instantiating the .Net DLL's class object. I can't seem to do this.
NOTE: I have looked around forums and MSDN documentation and I mostly find solution for calling a VB6 dll in .NET; which is unfortunately the opposite of what we need to do.
NOTE: I have already registered the compiled .Net(C#) assembly, and referenced it in the VB6 project.
I have however found these two pages, which seemed to be what we need, but its a solution for calling a .NET(c#) dll generated using VS2005. This doesnt seem to work when the .NET(C#) dll was generated using VS2010.
site1
site2
If someone could give any suggestions or direct me somewhere I can get one, that would be great.
Thanks
SOLUTION
Thanks to #HansPassant, I have found the solution.
To debug a VB6 project that contains a C# .NET assembly, you need to register the .NET dll through both "regasm" and "gacutil", then make sure to close and reopen the VB6 application before you start debugging.
This is not a problem, VB6 uses its own debugger that doesn't get in the way of any other debugger, including the managed one for C# code.
You start from your C# class library project, ensure it is selected as the start project. Project + Properties, Debug tab. Select the "Start external program" option and enter the path to the VB6 IDE. Typically c:\program files\microsoft visual studio\vb98\vb6.exe. Set a breakpoint on the method you want to debug.
Press F5 and the VB6 ide will start running. Load or create your vb6 project. Note how you can add the path to the .vbp project in the previous step so it will automatically load your project.
Start debugging your vb6 project as usual. As soon as it starts using your [ComVisible] C# class then your C# assembly gets loaded. And the breakpoint will hit when your vb6 code calls the method. Switch back and forth as needed. Note that you cannot single-step from vb6 to C# code, you have to set breakpoints to get the debugger to stop.
Ah, the wonders of using .NET from VB6 in a debuggable manner.
in the VB6 project compile options (reached using the Options button on the Make Project dialog window), choose the Compile to Native Code, No Optimization, and Create Symbolic Debug Info options. Then compile your VB6 project. These options allow proper VB6 binary-to-source mapping.
Go to the Configuration Properties...Debugging property page of your solution and change the Start Action to launch your VB6 executable.
In VS Solution Explorer, go to File...Add Existing Item and navigate to the folder containing the VB6 source code you want to debug. Double-click on the VB6 source code file you want to debug, and a source window should open in VS that allows you to set breakpoints in the VB6 source code.
Make sure that your .NET library has a public default constructor. This is essential.
Now also set any C# breakpoints that you need. Do not step into the .NET code - this doesn't work.
When you start debugging with VS, your VB6 and C# breakpoints should be hit normally.
One approach is to debug each individually:
Debugging the VB6 code can be done in the IDE after compiling the C# DLL and adding it as a reference to the VB6 project.
Debugging the DLL with the VB6 host is possible in Visual Studio by compiling the VB6 project and using it in the project properties as the executable to run.
In some cases this is simpler/quicker than setting up the environment to debug both simultaneously.
This approach will require having at least the framework of each working beforehand.
I have created a visual c++ 6.0 dll project and using it from my c# code. Now i want to debug the dll but i am not able to do it.
I choose the following option to do it:
put the breaking point in my visual c++ project code.
build the dll and copy it into the directory of my c# project.
Now i build my c# project and dll works fine (method are calling perfectly).
Now i want to debug the dll.
I follow a blog and open the c++ project and choose the Attach to process from vc++.
but i am not able to find the running process of visual c# project, whereas it available at task manager process.
In my c# project solution i have two project i.e.
web service (i called the dll method at the time of accessing a url)
Another one is webform application which starts the web services.
Now please help me how should i debug my dll. I have followed so many blogs but all of them are focusing on Attaching process method which is not working in my condition. What should i do?
You'll need to enable unmanaged debugging, it is not turned on by default in either scenario because your main program is managed.
You do it in your C# project with Project > Properties > Debug tab > tick the "Enable unmanaged code debugging" checkbox.
You do it with Tools > Attach to Process by clicking the Select button. Choose the "Debug these code types" radio button and tick both Managed and Native. You may have to resort to only native if your process is 64-bit.
Set a breakpoint in the DLL's source code and be sure to write C# code that exercises the DLL function. If you still have trouble getting a breakpoint then use Debug > Windows > Modules and verify that you see the DLL in the module list. Get additional troubleshooting info by right-clicking it, select Symbol Load Information. Which shows a trace of where the debugger looked for the PDB file.
You can add C++ project to the your C# solution and add reference directly to the project (not dll), then you will not be needing to copy DLL. After that just start normal debugging (F5) of your C# project, and breakpoints will be working for C++ project too. This way will be very comfortable for debugging. I have tried such debugging and did not change any other settings.
I have a C++ solution. The startup project is an exe. In the solution there are a number C# dlls (targeting .NET Framework 2.0) that are registered for COM interop. When I put a breakpoint in the C# code I get the hollow red breakpoint with "No native symbols in symbol file"
I have tried setting Project Property Pages -> Debugging -> Debugger Type to Mixed on the start-up project that calls the COM methods.
I have checked Debug -> Windows -> Modules. It has loaded my dlls, and the symbol status is "No native symbols in symbol file".
This is not the end of the world because if I do Debug -> Start Without Debugging and then Debug -> Attach to Process, changing the Attach To: to Managed (v2.0, v1.1, v1.0) code, Native code. Then I hit breakpoints in both the C++ code and C# code.
So I have my workaround but I reckon if I can do it by attaching to process - I should be able to do it by just debugging.
How can I hit my C# breakpoints by just doing Debug -> Start Debugging?
I was able to debug my C# dll from a C++ project in VS2008 by doing the following:
In the C++ project's properties, goto Configuration Properties -> Debugging. Set "Debugger Type" to Mixed. "Attach" should be set to No.
In your C# project properties, in the Debug tab, set the "Start External Program" to your C++ project's executable.
I know it's a little bit old but I found a practical solution for the problem.
I had the same problem while using a C++ application which uses a C# COM-Object. I tried several settings within Visual Studio on the C++ and C# side. Nothing helps until I tried manually launching the Debugger.
You can use
Debugger.Launch();
to manually start the Debugger on your C# DLL. I know this is not the best but a practical way. In later productive environments you have to remove the Debugger launch function :).
Regards
I am unsure if this will help but we work a lot with C# and C++. I found this to be possible by placing the C++ project and the C# project in the same solution and enabling "native debugging" in the C# project. Then I was able to jump back and forth between them while debugging.
I have problem with debugging SolidWorks Enterprise PDM addin. I don't know how the addins are handled within EPDM, but the problem seems to be related with Visual Studio - maybe someone else has similar problem with other platform's addins.
Adding a debug addin (so that latest source is used):
In Visual Studio 2010 Express there's no problem - kill explorer, start it, attach to it and:
I couldn't achieve the same with Visual Studio 2012 Express. Although it seems that it is debugging explorer (files are read-only, stop debug button is shown), it doesn't hit breakpoints:
I work on Windows 7 Professional x64. Addins are built with .NET 3.5. I've used both VS2010 and VS2012 solutions with the same problem.
I do restart explorer.exe, so the latest version of addin is loaded. Project uses start action "explorer.exe":
<StartAction>Program</StartAction>
<StartProgram>$(windir)\explorer.exe</StartProgram>
<StartArguments></StartArguments>
I don't know why the breakpoints are not hit, any help much appreciated.
Thanks!
UPDATE 1
I've checked what Hans suggested - there are two other processes starting, but attaching to them didn't result in anything.
That pointed out one more thing - when I was attaching to those processes there was an information within VisualStudio, that the breakpoints will not be hit, because no debug symbols were loaded - notice that in the third image attached the debug symbols are loaded (the red circle is filled and without the exclamation mark).
UPDATE 2
When I attached VisualStudio to the managed explorer.exe - the breakpoints were hit!
It seems that explorer.exe is running in Managed mode only sometimes:
It can even be running in both modes side by side:
So the question is how to force VisualStudio starting explorer.exe in managed mode?
UPDATE 3
Is it possibly a VisualStudio 2012 bug?
When debugging with VS2010 the explorer is started in normal mode, but as soon as the addin is loaded, it is switched to managed mode and VS2010 stops at the breakpoints.
With VS2012 it is different - when the addin is loaded, explorer.exe is not switched to managed mode and (therefore? is it connected?) breakpoints are not hit.
But when VS2012 is attached to the explorer.exe that already is in managed mode, it stops at breakpoints.
UPDATE 4
I've managed to reach the essence of the problem - when attaching VS2012 to another process (e.g. explorer.exe) with "Automatically determine the type of code to debug" selected" and the process is started in native mode and some time later loads managed code - the debugger doesn't stop at the breakpoints. When the process is already in managed mode when attaching to or when attaching to with code type(s) explicitly selected ("Managed (v3.5, v3.0, v2.0)") - the debugger stops at the breakpoints.
Already posted on connect - awaiting solution. Please vote if you experience the same problem as described in this update.
UPDATE 5
I've just tested it on a simple managed shell extension so it is not SolidWorks Enterprise PDM - related.
I've also posted a more precise bug on connect.
UPDATE 6
As of the beginning of 2013 Microsoft claims that it is a design decision that the debugger is not behaving as expected. More details in the first connect bug report.
When you're building a .dll (I assume this way it's loaded into explorer) breakpoints had always problems (at least in my experience), because you have no way of knowing in advance where file will be loaded in memory, therefore it's hard to add a breakpoint.
You may try to add manual breakpoint invocation inside your code (which is int3). In C++ this would be:
asm {
int 3;
}
In C# there's a method for that:
System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Break()
Try to adding to the beginning of your function/code part (don't forget co compile in debug mode).
Then you'll just start debugging application (.exe) which loads .dll file and loaded library should trigger a break point.
I have a rather large .NET 2.0 solution (151 projects) in Visual Studio 2008. Often times when I do a build (even for just one project) in VS I get an error saying that it can't copy one of my DLL assemblies to the output directory because it is in use. I don't have any other processes running in the background or existing debug sessions going that would be using this assembly. If I open up Process Explorer and do a search for this assembly name Visual Studio (devenv.exe) comes up as the only result. Looking at the results Visual Studio has my assembly loaded as a DLL for some reason. Closing the solution and reopening it doesn't solve the problem. I have to completely exit out of VS altogether to get around this issue which is quite disruptive. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I'm running on Window 7, I don't think I saw this issue on Windows XP.
I am running Visual Studio 2008 Version 9.0.30729.1 SP. I'm also running ReSharper 6 if that matters.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on? I'm running on Window 7, I
don't think I saw this issue on Windows XP.
I run into this problem all the time on Windows XP and its not even localized to Visual Studio 2008. What always works for me is I simply clean all solutions, this gets rid of any file that might be in my system's memory, because of Visual Studio.
Visual Studio keeps any your references in memory, so when one of those references is updated, Visual Studio has to release it from memory. If it really happens more then "once in awhile" then you might look at trying to reduce the number of solutions in your project.
Use the following command and place it in "Pre Build Events" of visual studio:
if exist "$(TargetPath).locked" del "$(TargetPath).locked"
Hope this would help you.
Try to disable the hosting process:
Open an executable project in Visual Studio. Projects that do not produce executables (for example, class library or service projects) do not have this option.
On the Project menu, click Properties.
Click the Debug tab.
Clear the Enable the Visual Studio hosting process check box.
Kill process VBCSCompiler.exe and rebuild.
I would guess that the dll is being used by the (ProjectName).vshost.exe process. You might try killing that process and see if that works. Probably not the best thing to do, but it might be easier than restarting VS.
I would try the "Clean Solution" option before you build. This can clean up any extraneous temp files that could be hanging around from a program crash.
I have no idea about why this works, but I had the same problem and when I changed the Starting Project to the project I wanted to build everything worked again.
When I change the Startup project again to the right one I cannot build the other project anymore due to the file being in use, so looks like a bug at the Visual Studio IDE.