Visual Studio also saves the binaries of loaded native modules in a dump file with a heap, which can make debugging much easier. For example, compiler inlining of functions can result in unexpected call stacks, and other optimizations might change the lifetime of variables.ĭump files may or may not have heap information.ĭump files with heaps contain a snapshot of the app's memory, including the values of variables, at the time of the dump.

Debugging dump files of optimized code can be confusing.

A full user-mode dump is not the same as a dump with heap. Visual Studio can't debug dump files saved in the older, full user-mode dump format.

To debug kernel-mode dump files or use the SOS.dll debugging extension in Visual Studio, download the debugging tools for Windows in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).It can also debug dumps of managed apps from ARM devices, but only in the native debugger. Visual Studio can debug dump files of native apps from ARM devices.Visual Studio can debug dump files of managed apps from Linux OS.To debug dump files from 64-bit machines, Visual Studio must be running on a 64-bit machine.It can debug dump files created by Visual Studio or by other apps that save files in the minidump format. The Visual Studio debugger can save dump files for managed or native code. Testers also create dumps to save crash or unresponsive program data to use for more testing. You can use a dump file from a customer's machine when you can't reproduce a crash or unresponsive program on your own machine. Although you can't continue execution, you can examine the stacks, threads, and variable values of the app at the time of the dump.ĭumps are mostly used to debug issues from machines that developers don't have access to.

Opening a dump file with a heap in Visual Studio is something like stopping at a breakpoint in a debug session. A dump with heap information also includes a snapshot of the app's memory at that point. Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac Visual Studio CodeĪ dump file is a snapshot that shows the process that was executing and modules that were loaded for an app at a point in time.

Visual studio code debugger file