Unable to step into code decompiled by Reflector

RPGCoder

Greetings!

I just purchased .Net Reflector 8 Pro today since I was getting a lot of great information out of the non-Pro version I had purchased and installed previously and I wanted to try out the Visual Studio debugging features. I've been able to use the VS integration for VS2010 to set up a third-party DLL for debugging, decompiling it for C# .NET 2.0. Unfortunately, when I try to step into the DLL's code I get some long delays and the code executes as if I had stepped over it. I've placed breakpoints in the decompiled code in locations I know are executing, but they are never hit. Looking in the Modules tab of VS, I see the DLL and it displays "Symbols not loaded". Right-clicking on the DLL and choosing Load Symbols From -> Symbol Path brings up a dialog box saying that it's downloading symbols for that specific DLL, but afterwards the Modules tab still says symbols aren't loaded for it. No errors appear in the Output window, nor in the .NET Reflector log files which I have set to WARN as suggested at http://documentation.red-gate.com/displ ... lector+Pro. I'm hoping there's just something I forgot to do, but I've followed the steps described in a recent forum post describing a similar problem (viewtopic.php?f=179&t=78398#p137996) and they didn't help. Apart from this issue, I'm really liking Reflector. It's really handy for inspecting assemblies that I thought would be permanently impenetrable.

Thanks,
RPGCoder

Jessica R

Hi RPGCoder,

Thanks for your post and sorry there have been some issues debugging with .NET Reflector!

Can you kindly first double check -- if you go to .NET Reflector >Generate PDBs from the VS menu, has debugging indeed been enabled for your DLL?

If it is, please try clearing the pdb cache (.NET Reflector> Clear the cache) and then reenable debugging to recreate the pdb file by right-clicking on the assembly from the Reflector Object Browser and then choosing "Enable debugging". When you debug again, does the pdb file get loaded?

If that still does not help get the pdb loaded successfully though, can you please check-- if you go back to Modules and right-click on the DLL, choose "Browse to find xxxx.pdb" and then choose the pdb created for the dll in the Reflector cache %localappdata%
ed gate.NET Reflector 8Cachex - does that allow you to or give any particular errors?

Thank you!

RPGCoder

Hi Jessica,

Sorry for the delay getting back to you. I've been working on other tasks. I've performed the first two steps you mention, and debugging is definitely activated for the target DLL, and a PDB has been generated by .NET Reflector. I cannot run the final step, however, as Visual Studio 2010 does not have a "Browse to find .pdb" option when right-clicking on DLLs in the Modules tab. I'm assuming this was added in a later VS release. As it stands, the .NET Reflector cache directory is at the top of the Symbol File Locations list when selecting Symbol Settings... from the right-click menu in the Modules tab. The only thing approaching an error that I'm seeing is in the Command Window tab, which I happened to have opened. It has a single line in it reading:

Module not found: <MyTargetDLL>.dll

Considering that the code is running the way it's supposed to, but I just can't debug into the DLL, this error seems odd. The module is obviously present.

Thanks,
RPGCoder

Jessica R

Hi RPGCoder,

No worries and thanks for the update!

The error is quite odd as the Modules window does actually show it's been loaded. Assuming it's a red herring, can you please when debugging, go back to the Modules window again, right-click on the dll, choose "Symbol load information..." and then share that output?

(And apologies, I believe the "Browse to find .pdb" option only comes up in certain cases)

Thank you!