SymbolFileSystem

UserPreferences

1 개요

PDB & DBG 파일에 관한 이야기

2 종류

2.1 Old vs Current

Current Symbol File System
In the current system, there are always two files: the executable file and a .pdb file. The .pdb file contains all the symbols. The executable file contains a pointer to the .pdb file.

Old Symbol File System
In the old system, executable files and symbol files can be arranged in two different ways:


• The executable file and a .pdb file. In this arrangement, most symbol information is in the .pdb file. The remainder of the symbol information is included in the executable file. The executable file also contains a pointer to the .pdb file.
  
• The executable file, a .pdb file, and a .dbg file. The .pdb file is the same as in the two-file arrangement: it holds most of the symbols. The remainder of the symbol information is in the .dbg file. No symbol information is in the executable file. The executable file contains a pointer to the .dbg file, and the .dbg file contains a pointer to the .pdb file.
  
  
In the old symbol file system, both the two-file arrangement and the three-file arrangement contain the same executable code and the same symbols. The program can run and can be debugged in either arrangement. However, the three-file arrangement speeds up execution, because the executable file is smaller.



2.2 Public vs Private

Symbols	Public	Private
The names and addresses of all functions	O	O
All data type, structure, and class definitions	X	O
The names, data types, and addresses of global variables	O	O
The names, data types, addresses, and scopes of local variables	X	O
The line numbers in the source code that correspond to each binary instruction	X	O


기본 심볼 파일에서 public symbol만을 남겨놓은 심볼 파일을 stripped symbol 파일이라고 부르는데, 보다시피 함수 이름 및 전역 변수의 이름 정도만이 들어간다. 즉 stripped symbol 파일을 이용해서 콜스택을 출력하는 경우, 소스 라인 정보는 출력할 수 없다.

심볼 파일이 stripped인지 아닌지의 여부는 Debugging Tools for Windows 내에 딸려오는 symchk 유틸리티를 이용하면 알 수 있다.


>symchk /v d:\project\test.exe /s d:\project\ /pf 
[SYMCHK] Using search path "D:\Project\" 
SYMCHK: test.exe FAILED  - test.pdb is stripped. 
 
SYMCHK: FAILED files = 1 
SYMCHK: PASSED + IGNORED files = 0 

3 링크

• .PDB 및 .DBG 파일에 대한 설명
  
• Symbol File Systems
  
• Symbol Handling
  
• Why do I get weird function names on my stack? (a discussion on symbols)
  

• see also Scrap/PdbFileInternals, SymbolServer, MiniDump
  

• CategoryDebugging