Line numbers do not appear in stack trace of exceptions thrown from COM+ Applications. Why?

1
votes

The title basically summarizes it.

I have a COM+ Server Application implemented using VB.NET 2010, that was configured to gather data from its own .config file by using the procedure described in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms685134(v=vs.85).aspx .

So far, it seems to work like a charm. And I, foolishly, assumed that should be enough for it to know where to pick the .pdb files containing debug info, and include such info when unexpected exceptions arise from it. (The .pdb files are there, btw... right next to the .dll files that comprise the COM+ Application).

Looks like I was wrong, after all; all exceptions thrown from the COM+ Application show the functions being called, but not the related line numbers.

Do I need to do something else in order to make my COM+ Application to return not only function names, but also line numbers in the stack trace returned by exceptions being raised on it?

1
.netstack-tracecom+line-numbers
Did you change the "Generate debug info" option for the Release build to "Full"? Required. – Hans Passant
Yes. I just confirmed it. Mind you, I'm not using the "Release" build, but the "Debug" build. Just to be clear: both builds, "Debug" and "Release", have "Generate debug info" set to "Full". – Heriberto Delgado
It looks like the runtime is not finding the PDB files. If I were to guess it sounds like application root is only used for the configuration and not for the runtime locating the PDB files. As a test, I would copy the PDB files to the system32 directory and see if that helps. – Randy supports Monica

1 Answers

1
votes

Bingo!

After 1 year of intermittently looking for the answer, I think I finally found something that works.

You see, as a recommended practice, MS asks you to place your COM+-exposed assemblies in the GAC. Guess what? If you place the .pdb files inside the GAC folder that contains these assemblies, all of a sudden, .NET can now find the damn .pdb files! And now all stack traces have the line numbers in them! YAY me!

UNFORTUNATELY, there doesn't seem to be a way to (or tool that) places .pdb files automatically next to the .dll files in the GAC. Oh well, guess I'll have to do it on the installer...

But for now, mission accomplished!