Microsoft(R) Debugging Toolsfor Windows(R) Version 6.0 Release Notes June 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents Overview What's New Known Issues Programs Debugger Extensions Software Development Samples Documentation Redistributables More Information Feedback ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview Debugging Tools for Windows(R) contains tools to analyze and debug OS and application failures. The kernel debugger is KD.exe. It can be installed and run on all the platforms listed below. It can debug all the platforms listed below. The user-mode debugger is CDB.exe. It can be installed and used on all the platforms listed below. WinDbg.exe is the GUI version of the debugger. It supports both user-mode and kernel-mode debugging. It can be installed and run on all the platforms listed below. It can debug all the platforms listed below. Supported platforms: Windows NT 4.0 (x86) Windows 2000 (x86) Windows XP (All CPU architectures) Windows Server 2003 (All CPU architectures) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New This release of Debugging Tools for Windows contains many bug fixes and new enhancements. The debuggers are stable and more reliable than previous releases and we recommend that you upgrade to this version. It is also a requirement to use this latest version if you wish to do kernel debugging of Windows Server 2003. Older versions (including 3.0.20.0) will not work with the latest Windows Server 2003 build. Here's a list of some of the changes in WinDbg 6.0: * Numerous improvements to !analyze * Don't lock PDB files when opened by the debugger (use SHARE_FILE_DELETE) * New symchk.exe utility which can be used to download symbols from the symbol server prior to a debugging session * New SYMOPT_SECURE debugger option to secure the host machine when remote debugging is enabled * New stepping commands pc and tc, and new tracing options with wt * Multiple dump files can now be loaded in the same debug session simultaneously * Many new search options added to the 's' command * Many new options for user mode minidump file creation * Better Ctrl-C support for long symbol operations * Allow lmv to show resource strings of kernel drivers * Other new and improved commands include .writemem, bm, kl, knf, .symfix+, .reload -w, !exchain, .closehandle, !apc, !analyze -f, .process -r, .thread -r, .cls, .logopen /t, .remote_exit, .enable_long_status, !slist, !evlog * Improved documentation * And lots of bug fixes, including: * Fixes for numerous Windows XP debugger extension issues * Fixes for various WinDbg crashes that people have reported using the Windows Error Reporting feature in Windows XP. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Known Issues VC4 \ NT 4 DDK support: ----------------------- The NT 4 DKK shipped with VC4 compatible tools. This version of the debuggers does not support local variables generated by this default build-environment. The debuggers only support local variables if a .pdb file is generated by the compiler and linker. To enable .pdb files in the NT 4 DDK, set the following environment variable. set USE_PDB=1 set NTDEBUGTYPE=windbg Other issues: ------------- If you need to find source that was compiled at a different location than the current location to the source, use the ".srcpath" command. If you are using Windows NT 4.0, you need to have Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later installed for all of the features to work correctly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Programs This distribution includes the following debuggers: KD - Command-line kernel debugger NTSD - Command-line user-mode debugger CDB - Command-line user-mode debugger (variant of NTSD) WinDbg - GUI kernel debugger I386KD is also provided in the package to support backwards compatibility. It has the same code-base as KD. There are several debugger-related tools included with the package. They are identified as a subcategory under Tools in the custom menu during install. This subcategory is called "Helpful Tools" and it is installed by default. The Helpful Tools option is installed by default and includes these debugger-related tools: gflags - Global Flags Editor breakin - Utility to force a breakin in another process being debugged remote - Remote Command Line kill - Task Killing Utility list - File List Utility logviewer - Display API logs created with the .logext extension from the debugger symchk - utility to check validity of symbol files, or download symbols from a symbol server prior to a debugging session symstore - Creates a symbol server for automatic symbol lookup tlist - Task List Viewer umdh - Heap Analysis Tool The following tools have been incorporated into KD.exe and WinDbg.exe. They are also provided with Helpful Tools as small stubs that point you to use the debugger. dumpchk - Dump Checking Utility dumpexam - Dump Examining Utility ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debugger Extensions Debugger Extensions are DLLs which WinDbg, CDB, NTSD, and KD can use to provide additional debugger commands. The Windows XP debugger extensions are in the winxp subdirectory and include: exts.dll kdexts.dll The extensions that work for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP are in a winext subdirectory and include: uext.dll kext.dll ext.dll logexts.dll The debugger extension DLLs for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 are operating system version, debug/retail specific. However, these extensions should properly support all service packs based on that build. Multiple versions of each DLL are included, to provide the necessary files for each variant. All DLLs are provided in both debug and retail versions. The debug and retail versions of these DLLs for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 are installed into four subdirectories, under the target subdirectory: nt4chk nt4fre w2kchk w2kfre The debugger has awareness of these subdirectories, and will not be able to find them if these subdirectories are renamed or moved. If a custom extension DLL is to be used, it should be placed in its own directory. The user can then set the debugger extension path variable so the debugger can find the extension. Debugger extension can also be loaded in the debugger using fully qualified path names. All of the debuggers search for debugger extension DLLs in the following places: %NT_DEBUGGER_EXTENSION_PATH%; %DIRECTORY_FROM_WHICH_KDNTSD_IS_LAUNCHED%\WINEXT; %DIRECTORY_FROM_WHICH_KDNTSD_IS_LAUNCHED%\%TARGET_PLATFORM%; %DIRECTORY_FROM_WHICH_KDNTSD_IS_LAUNCHED%; %Path% where TARGET_PLATFORM is [nt4fre| nt4chk| w2kfre| w2kchk| winxp]. Use the "version" command in KD/NTSD to see the extension search path, and to note where extension DLLs are loaded from. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software Development Samples Header files, libs and samples for debugger extensions are provided in this package. They are not installed by default. The "SDK" component of the package must be selected during the install to get the samples installed. The samples will compile by using the latest Windows XP DDK or SDK. The header files and libs in this package should replace any existing version of the header files or libs that are shipped with the DDK or SDK. Using the samples and headers with the Windows 2000 SDK or DDK will cause compilation errors. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation For documentation on how to use these debuggers and related tools, see the help file debugger.chm that is included with the tools. This documentation has been improved and expanded since the last release. You need to have Internet Explorer 5.0 or greater installed in order to use the documentation properly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Redistributables Please read the license agreement during setup for legal information regarding redistributable files. If this is a retail release, the license agreement mentions that redist.txt gives a list of the files that are redistributable. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- More Information For more information on debugging, see the Debugging Tools for Windows web page, . We encourage people to get the new debugger off the web "often", as we do many updates, while keeping compatibility with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feedback We are interested in your feedback on the tools. Please mail suggestions or bug reports to WinDbgfb@microsoft.com. This is not a support alias, but your feedback will help us to plan future changes for these tools and will make them more useful to you in the future. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------