Can I attach an External Debug Window to My Running Executable?

[Charles Law]

Suppose my application is running on a client machine, and they report an
intermittent problem. It only occurs after the program has been running for
a while, and then occasionally fails to perform correctly.

I would like to be able to come along with a program I have written (or a
third-party program), load it onto the client machine - without stopping the
problem application - and attach to the application to receive trace
information in a window.

I can add any code needed to my application now, so that when this happens
in real life I am prepared.

Can this be done?

What code would I need to add to my application to make this possible?

How do I write a small program that can attach to my running application to
receive trace information for display in a window, or is there a third-party
tool?

TIA

Charles

 

[Ken Tucker [MVP]]

Hi,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...debug/html/vctskAttachingToRunningProgram.asp

Ken
----------------------
Suppose my application is running on a client machine, and they report an
intermittent problem. It only occurs after the program has been running for
a while, and then occasionally fails to perform correctly.

I would like to be able to come along with a program I have written (or a
third-party program), load it onto the client machine - without stopping the
problem application - and attach to the application to receive trace
information in a window.

I can add any code needed to my application now, so that when this happens
in real life I am prepared.

Can this be done?

What code would I need to add to my application to make this possible?

How do I write a small program that can attach to my running application to
receive trace information for display in a window, or is there a third-party
tool?

TIA

Charles

 

[Charles Law]

Hi Ken

Thanks for the link. I just came across this actually, but the downside is
that it would seem that I have to have the development environment installed
on the client machine. Is that correct?

I am really looking for something quite simple. If I have Trace statements
in my code then the output goes to the Output window in the VS debugger. I
would like to receive those messages in an external program - perhaps one
that I have to write. Do you know if it can be done?

Charles

 

[Ken Tucker [MVP]]

Hi,

Maybe this will help.
http://www.codeguru.com/vb/gen/vb_system/win32/article.php/c7525/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/11/CLRDebugging/default.aspx

Ken
-------------------
Hi Ken

Thanks for the link. I just came across this actually, but the downside is
that it would seem that I have to have the development environment installed
on the client machine. Is that correct?

I am really looking for something quite simple. If I have Trace statements
in my code then the output goes to the Output window in the VS debugger. I
would like to receive those messages in an external program - perhaps one
that I have to write. Do you know if it can be done?

Charles

 

[Charles Law]

Hi Ken

The codeguru article looks like just the job. Thanks.

Charles

 

[Atara]

The following works with the standart output:

in your app.exe.config file add
<system.diagnostics>
<switches>
<add name="myTraceFlag1" value="0"/>
</switches>
</system.diagnostics>

When the customer have a problem, tell him to change the value, e.g
<add name="myTraceFlag" value="4"/>

value options:
0 none TraceSwitch is disabled.
1 TraceError: Only Errors.
2 TraceWarning: Errors and Warnings.
3 TraceInformation: Errors, Warnings, and Info.
4 TraceVerbose: All kinds of messages are traced.
No filter is applied.

' in your application add the following code:
Dim tl As New TextWriterTraceListener(System.Console.Out)
Trace.Listeners.Add(tl)

' Use Trace.WriteLineIf :
dim ts As New TraceSwitch("myTraceFlag1", "description")
Trace.WriteLineIf(ts.TraceInfo, myStrStatus)
Trace.WriteLineIf(ts.TraceWarning, myStrStatus)


Run your application using stdOutput:
myApp.exe > myWarnings.txt

and you will get your Trace lines in "myWarnings.txt" file

Atara

 

[Charles Law]

Thanks Atara. A neat solution.

Charles