CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xcodesymbolicatecrash
teepusink
teepusink

Reputation: 28902

XCode symbolicate & dSYM file

Trying to get my head around symbolicate and dSYM file and how can they be useful to debugging.

Been following this start guide. http://aplus.rs/ios-dev/guide-to-symbolicating-iphone-app-crash-logs-with-xcode-4-2/

So in what way can a dSYM file be useful? I guess I'm confused with the terminology "symbolicate". Is it just useful to generate a .crash log file or can it actually do more than that?

Thank you,
Tee

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2372

Answers (1)

Kerni
Kerni

Reputation: 15339

A dSYM contains a dwarf file for mapping of memory addresses and methods and lines of code in your source code. When an app crashes it writes a .crash log file which only contains memory addresses of the code being executed at the time a crash occurred. "Symbolicate" means transforming these memory addresses to class, method and line of code that. So it helps understanding what an app was doing when it crashed.

The debugger uses the same file to provide stack traces and more information while debugging a running application.

So it is useful and needed in both cases for understanding a crash report and also while debugging.

Upvotes: 6

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