The Power point presentation I've used for my session "How to become a debugging Jedi" at 26.01.17, 19:00 in a Meetup held in Microsoft's R&D center in Nazareth, Israel.

1. 1
Moaid Hathot
Software Consultant
http://moaid.codes
How to become a debugging Jedi

2. 222
• Software engineer, consultant and code Jedi
• Developing Software professionally since 2013
• Software Craftsmanship advocate
• Clean Coder
@MoaidHathot
moaidh@codevalue.net
http://www.moaid.codes
About Me

3. 333
About CodeValue
A leading software company
• ~180 employees: more than 120 technology experts
• Provides high quality software development solutions
• Turn-Key projects
• Software development and consultation
• Tailor-made courses and training
• Fields of expertise include:
• Desktop & LOB applications
• Cloud Computing
• Advanced Mobile & Web Technologies
• User Experience (UX) & User Interface (UI)
• Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and DevOps
• Embedded & IoT

4. Agenda
Introduction
Breakpoints
Debugging attributes
Debugging multithreaded code
Tools
Post-mortem debugging
4

5. 555
The Original Bug Report
• “Debugging is the process of finding and resolving bugs or defects that
prevent correct operation of computer software or a system”
• The terms "bug" and "debugging" are popularly attributed to Admiral
Grace Hopper in the 1940s
• However the term is much older
• Thomas Edison wrote the following words in a letter to an associate in 1878:
• “It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a
burst, then difficulties arise — this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs"
— as such little faults and difficulties are called — show themselves and months of intense
watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly
reached”

6. 666
The Original Bug Report

7. 777
Squandered time
Every minute spent in the debugger
is a minute squandered.
Period.

8. 888
Debugging is a time-travel

9. 999
The Aha Moment
• The two endpoints of debugging
1. What the heck.
2. Aha!

10. 101010
Know your tools
Know your tools

11. 111111
Know your tools
Know your tools

12. 121212
Controlling The Debugger
• There are 10 types of (human) debuggers:
• The “I am too tired to think, let the debugger lead and control” type
• The “everything is under control” type

13. 131313
Rubber ducking
rubber duck debugging or rubber ducking is a method
of debugging code
The name is a reference to a story in the book The
Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would
carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by
forcing themselves to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck

14. 141414
Rubber ducking
rubber duck debugging or rubber ducking is a method
of debugging code
The name is a reference to a story in the book The
Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would
carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by
forcing themselves to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck

15. 15
Breakpoints
15

16. Conditional Breakpoints
16

17. 171717
Filters

18. Tracepoints (VS)
18

19. Tracepoints (VS)
19

20. Method Breakpoints
Ctrl + B
If you type a method name (without class name)
VS select all that matches
20

21. 212121
Conditional Breakpoint’s drawbacks
What are the drawbacks of Conditional Breakpoints?

22. 222222
Debugger Anatomy
Wait for
debug event
Handle
debug event
Continue
debug event
Start the debugger
or attach to it
Enter main
debugger loop

23. 232323
Debugger Main Loop
1. …
2. for(;;)
3. {
4. WaitForDebugEvent(DebugEv, INFINITE);
5. switch (DebugEv->dwDebugEventCode)
6. {
7. case EXCEPTION_DEBUG_EVENT:
8. switch(DebugEv->u.Exception.ExceptionRecord.
9. ExceptionCode)
10. {
11. case EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION:
12. case …
13. }
Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms681675(v=vs.85).aspx

24. 242424
Debugger Main Loop
Source: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms681675(v=vs.85).aspx
1. break;
2. case CREATE_THREAD_DEBUG_EVENT:
3. dwContinueStatus =
4. OnCreateThreadDebugEvent(DebugEv);
5. break;
6. …
7. }
8. // Resume executing the thread that reported the
9. debugging event.
10. ContinueDebugEvent(DebugEv->dwProcessId,
11. DebugEv->dwThreadId,
12. dwContinueStatus);
13. }}

25. 252525
Debugger break

26. 262626
Debugger break

27. 272727
Conditional Attribute

28. 282828
Object ID’s

29. 292929
Lambda Evaluation in Immediate & Watch Windows

30. 30
Debugging Attributes
30

31. 313131
Debugger Display Attribute

32. 323232
Debugger Display Attribute

33. 333333
Debugger Display Attribute

34. 343434
Debugger Type Proxy Attribute

35. 353535
Debugger Browsable Attribute

36. 363636
Debugger Visualizer

37. 373737
Debugger Visualizer

38. 38
Multithreading
38

39. Staying on the same thread (freezing other threads)
39

40. Finding Tasks Deadlocks
Debug –> windows –> Tasks
40

41. 414141
Parallel Task & Parallel Stacks
View the logical call, the logical call stack and the task/thread state

42. 424242
Parallel Watch - View local variable in each thread’s context

43. 434343
Concurrent Visualizer
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.ConcurrencyVisualizerforVisualStudio2015

44. 444444
Concurrent Visualizer
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.ConcurrencyVisualizerforVisualStudio2015

45. 45
OzCode
45

46. LINQ Debugging
46

47. Predicting the future
Predict
47

48. Custom Expressions
48

49. Show All Instances
49

50. Tracepoints (OzCode)
50

51. Conditional Breakpoints (OzCode)
51
invoice.Id915486 intinvoice.Id915486 int

52. OzCode Comapre
52

53. Export
53

54. Give it a try
https://github.com/oz-code/OzCodeDemo

55. 55
System Internals
55

56. Where to download
Browser: http://Live.sysinternals.com
Shared folder: live.sysinternals.comtools
56

57. Process Explorer
57

58. Process Monitor
58

59. 59
Post-Mortem Debugging
59

60. 606060
Dump Files
• A minidump is a snapshot of a process
– May be created at any time, not just when a process crashes
• Minidump types
– Kernel minidumps (not relevant for this course)
– Basic (usually enough for native processes)
– Full (required to get useful info for managed processes)

61. 616161
Dump Creation
• Minidump creation
– WinDbg
– On Vista, 2008 and up can use Task Manager
– ADPlus
– ProcDump
• Opening Dump files
– WinDbg
– Visual Studio 2012/2013

62. Automatic Dump Creation
To enable it, set the reg key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsWindows Error
ReportingLocalDumps<appName>
DumpFolder – Location for the output dumps
DumpCount – Maximum amount of dumps in the folder
DumpType
1 – Mini Dump
2 – Full Dump
0 – Custom Dump
CustomDumpFlags – if DumpType is 0, set the dump options
62

63. Debugging using the Dump (1)
63

64. Debugging using the Dump (2)
64

65. 666666
Generating Symbol Tables
1. Open DotPeek
2. Add the required assembly
3. Press start Symbol server
4. In VS add new symbol source

66. 676767
Debugging is Hard
Debugging is HARD.
Even the Pros get befuddled
sometimes
Use the right tools to decrease your Time-to-Aha factor

67. 686868
Kahoot it
Use your browser to visit:
https://kahoot.it

68. 69
Presenter contact details
t: @MoaidHathot
e: moaidh@codevalue.net
b: http://www.moaid.codes
w: www.codevalue.net
69
Free 3 months of OzCode
http://tinyurl.com/jpn4y96