Microsoft(R) Debugging Toolsfor Windows(R)
Version 6.0 Release Notes
June 2002
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Contents
Overview
What's New
Known Issues
Programs
Debugger Extensions
Software Development Samples
Documentation
Redistributables
More Information
Feedback
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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)
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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.
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Known Issues
VC4 \ NT 4 DDK support:
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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:
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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More Information
For more information on debugging, see the Debugging Tools for Windows
web page, <http://www.microsoft.com/ddk/debugging/>.
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.
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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.
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