Microsoft(R) Debugging Tools for Windows(R) 64 Bit Beta Version Release Notes April 2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents Overview What's New Known Issues Programs Debugger Extensions Software Development Samples Documentation More Information Feedback ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overview Debugging Tools for Windows contains tools to analyze and debug OS and application failures. This is a beta of the 64-bit release of Debugging Tools for Windows(R). This Debugging Tools package is based on the 32-bit Debugging Tools package. It is compiled as native IA64 binaries from the same source code as the 32- bit tools. It will have the same features and same limitations as the 32-bit tools. The kernel debugger is KD.exe. It runs on the latest version of Windows Windows Whistler for 64-bit. KD.exe can be used to debug Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows Whistler. The user-mode debugger is CDB.exe. It can be used to debug 32-bit X86 applications as well as native 64-bit applications. WinDbg.exe is the GUI mode version of the debugger. It supports both user-mode and kernel-mode debugging. WinDbg can debug Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows Whistler. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New This Beta of Debugging Tools for Windows is based on the concurrently released version of the 32-bit Debugging Tools package. This release of Debugging Tools for Windows contains many bug fixes and new enhancements. The debuggers are stable and more reliable than Version 2.0.23.0 and we recommend that you upgrade your debuggers to this new version. It is also a requirement to use this latest drop if you wish to debug POST BETA 2 versions of Windows XP; older versions (including 2.0.23) will not work on the latest Windows XP build. Here's a list of the enhancements to WinDBG 3.0: * Add ambiguous symbol detection (print a warning if a symbol name being evaluated is defined multiple times) * Better wildcard support in the 'x' command * Allow regsiters in the watch window (prefix with '@') * Many fixes for windows XP debugger extensions. * Modify WinDbg to save workspaces under HKEY_CURRENT_USER * Add context menus to the calls, CPU and watch/locals windows in WinDbg * Add a scratch pad window to WinDbg * Enhace !pool to print more infomration about a block (if it exists) * move extensions to winxp directory (instead of w2001) * Automatically expand .dmp files out of .cab * And lots of bug fixes! Windows XP specific enhacements (requires the new debugger AND windows XP) * Faster stepping * .kdfiles to transfer files over the debugger port ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Known Issues None. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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 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 Whistler debugger extensions are in the winxp subdirectory and include: exts.dll kdexts.dll 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. For Whistler, Ntsdexts.dll ships with the operating system, in %systemroot%\system64, and is not included in this distribution. 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 winxp. Use the "version" command in KD/NTSD to see what the extension search path, to note where extension DLLs are loaded from. *** The NT 4 and Win2K debugger extensions were NOT ported and recompiled for 64 bit. In order to use the NT4 and Win2K extensions, the 32 bit Debugging Tools package should be installed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Software Development Samples Header files, libs and samples for debugger extensions samples 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 Whistler 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 will do lots of fixes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------