A UWP app dump file was created with the Task Manager: my_app.dmp. I found the symbol file generated by VS for this app: E:...\my_app.UWP\bin\x64\Release\Upload\my_app.UWP_4.6.100.0\my_app.UWP_4.6.100.0_x64.appxsym I add the above path to the Symbol File Path of WinDbg Debugging the dump file results in the below error: Error: Change all symbol paths attempts to access '"E:...\my_app.UWP\bin\x64\Release\Upload\my_app.UWP_4.6.100.0\my_app.UWP_4.6.100.0_x64.appxsy"' failed: 0x7b - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. Could anyone shed some light on this? [Update] The dump file has to be from a PC where VS cannot be run.

There are different kinds of dump files so it is hard to say at this point. Is there a reason you need to use Windbg? Since you wrote the code using VS then open the crash dump file in VS directly. If you built the code from the same machine you're loading the crash dump from then everything should just work. Otherwise copy all the PDBs you have to the same directory as the crash dump and then load it.

Symbol file for UWP app - Microsoft Q&A

Accepted answer

Michael Taylor 49,251 Reputation points

2024-05-17T19:01:52.72+00:00

There are different kinds of dump files so it is hard to say at this point. Is there a reason you need to use Windbg? Since you wrote the code using VS then open the crash dump file in VS directly. If you built the code from the same machine you're loading the crash dump from then everything should just work. Otherwise copy all the PDBs you have to the same directory as the crash dump and then load it.
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Hong 1,161 Reputation points

2024-05-17T19:39:26.05+00:00

Thank you for the answer. The dump file was obtained from a PC without VS.

Per your advice, I put my_app.pdb in the same directory as my_app.dmp, then opened the dump file with VS, but I got the following error message when running "Debug with Mixed":

"my_app.pdb" could not be located. The app is compiled with .NeT native compilation which requires symbol files to debug using the managed debugger"

Could you offer a hint about why VS could not locate the pdb file?

Michael Taylor 49,251 Reputation points

2024-05-17T19:55:13.8466667+00:00

It doesn't matter what machine generated the crash dump. You just need to copy the dump to a machine that has VS on it.

I'm assuming your VS symbol path options (Tool \ Options -> Debugging \ Symbols) isn't specifying a path that might have the PDB file in it. If VS isn't loading the PDB file automatically then there must be a disconnect between what the crash dump thinks and what the PDB contains. Did you also copy the EXE (or DLL) of the binary that you're trying to debug?

In the Modules window, after loading the crash dump file, select the my_app binary and tell it to load the symbols and then browse to where the PDB should be at.

The other thing I wonder about is the NET Native message. I don't use NET Native so I cannot answer to how it modifies things but is the PDB that you have the one that came from your VS build which presumably triggers the NET Native compilation or is there additional steps in your build process that handle this such that the final PDB isn't what you're using. It sounds to me like the PDB file you are trying to load doesn't actually go with the code that is being deployed. They have to line up.

An alternative thought is to build your code in "release" mode in VS and then check the path to the PDB that is loaded when you debug. It should line up with where the PDB was found on your build server (or wherever you got the path you originally posted).

Finally note that PDBs greatly help debugging but for NET code you can often get the callstack information without the full PDBs and that is sufficient to figure out what is going on. So if you're simply trying to figure out where in your code something is freezing/failing then you might not need to figure out the PDB thing right now.

Hong 1,161 Reputation points

2024-05-17T20:54:33.7533333+00:00

Thank you for all the insights.

I found my_app.pdb in

E:...\my_app.UWP\bin\x64\Release\AppX

I changed the symbol path from

C:\Users\myid\AppData\Local\Temp\SymbolCache

to

E:\Downloads

where the dump file and pdf file resides and still got the error.

I did not copy the exe file. This is a Microsoft store UWP app. The app was installed from the Microsoft Store.

I checked the uploaded bundle file(.msixupload) by unzipping it, but could not find and PDB file in it.

Should I copy the my_app.exe to the directory with the dump file?

I am debugging a memory leak issue which does not happen on the dev, unfortunately, so I have to go through this by obtaining the file from the other PC and looking at it on my dev machine.

Michael Taylor 49,251 Reputation points

2024-05-17T21:07:18.1733333+00:00

Copy all the binaries from the app's directory to where your crash dump is and then load the dump file. If the PDB is in the same directory as the dump and EXE then it should load it by default. But things might be different for NET Native and MS Store apps. I don't debug them so I cannot say for certain.

If you can replicate the problem on a machine that you can install tools to then I might recommend you use some of the builtin tools to help diagnose the memory leak. Specifically this link mentions 2 tools that might be helpful. THe dotnet-dump one in particular might generate a better crash dump file as it is specific to NET whereas Task Manager just dumps the entire process and is not configurable.

Hong 1,161 Reputation points

2024-05-17T21:28:18.22+00:00

I copied everything under E:...\bin\x64\Release to the dump file directory (about 1GB and 500 files with many subdirectories).

I got the same error.

I will see if I can manage to install tools on the PC with the issue.

Thanks a lot again for all the help.
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Symbol file for UWP app

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