CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++visual-studio-2010visual-studio
CDT
CDT

Reputation: 10661

Visual Studio - Call stack does not trace back to user function

Ran into some access violation in visual studio 2010 and here's the callstack: enter image description here

Most of the call stack are assembly code in the dll(almost illegible to me). I want to trace back to the line in my code which caused the violation, but it seems there's no user function in the call stack.

How can I find the line in my function causing the violation ? Do I need to adjust some settings ?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3188

Answers (1)

Hans Passant
Hans Passant

Reputation: 942020

Getting a reliable stack trace out of optimized C or C++ code is difficult. The optimizer chooses speed over diagnosability. The debugger needs PDB files for such code to know how to interpret the stack frames correctly and find the return address to the calling method.

Clearly you don't have these PDBs, you are getting the raw addresses from the operating system DLLs instead of their function names. Getting those PDBs is pretty simple, Microsoft has a public server that does nothing but deliver those PDBs for any released version of Windows, including service packs and security updates.

Telling the debugger about that server is required, the feature is off by default. It is particularly easy for VS2010, the server name is preprogrammed in the dialog, you only have to turn it on. Tools + Options, Debugging, Symbols, tick the checkbox in front of "Microsoft Symbol Servers". Set the cache directory, any writable directory will do.

Start debugging again, it will take a while at first to cache the PDBs. When it is done, you'll see a greatly improved stack trace. Accurate and with function names for the Windows DLLs.

Upvotes: 2

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