[RESOLVED] Cannot find or open the PDB file

[Slabs1960]

When running my project the Output Window displays the following message:

'AstroCompanion.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: AstroCompanion.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Accessibility\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Accessibili ty.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

It does not seem to affect the running, or functionality, of the code. What am I missing here?

[jmcilhinney]

That file may have failed to copy for some reason during installation, although I'm not sure whether that should be part of your Windows installation or a separate .NET Framework installation. It might not be a bad idea to try to repair that .NET installation either way. Either that or try just copying that file from another machine if you can.

[Slabs1960]

That file may have failed to copy for some reason during installation, although I'm not sure whether that should be part of your Windows installation or a separate .NET Framework installation. It might not be a bad idea to try to repair that .NET installation either way. Either that or try just copying that file from another machine if you can.

Thanks. I have 2 other machine with VS2017. Will give it a go.

[Slabs1960]

Ok. I did a bit of digging on the web. After a while I came upon these suggestions:

Tools > Options > Debugging > Native and check Load DLL Exports
Did not work for me.

Tools-> Options-> Debugging-> Symbols. Select checkbox "Microsoft Symbol Servers". Visual Studio will download PDBs automatically.
Works. But Visual Studio connects to the Microsoft Servers. A definite no-no for the company that I am contracting to. No internet access allowed from control system computers.

Tools -> Options -> Debugging -> Output Window -> Module Load Messages -> Off
Removes these messages, see below:

'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: DefaultDomain): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_32\mscorlib\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\mscorlib.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: DefaultDomain): Loaded 'd:\documents\visual studio 2017\Projects\NamdebConfigurationTool\NamdebConfigurationTool\bin\Debug\NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' . Symbols loaded.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.VisualBasic\v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Mi crosoft.VisualBasic.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Core\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Core.d ll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Windows.Forms\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\Syst em.Windows.Forms.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Drawing\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\System.Dra wing.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Configuration\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Syst em.Configuration.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Xml\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Xml.dll '. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Runtime.Remoting\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\S ystem.Runtime.Remoting.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_32\System.Data\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Data.dll '. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Data.DataSetExtensions\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934 e089\System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Numerics\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\System.Nu merics.dll'. Skipped loading symbols. Module is optimized and the debugger option 'Just My Code' is enabled.
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Accessibility\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Accessibili ty.dll'. Symbols loaded.
'AstroCompanion.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: AstroCompanion.exe): Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Accessibility\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Accessibili ty.dll'. Cannot find or open the PDB file.

Question is the fact that the PDB file is missing, a problem?

[TysonLPrice]

Ok. I did a bit of digging on the web. After a while I came upon these suggestions:

Tools > Options > Debugging > Native and check Load DLL Exports
Did not work for me.

Tools-> Options-> Debugging-> Symbols. Select checkbox "Microsoft Symbol Servers". Visual Studio will download PDBs automatically.
Works. But Visual Studio connects to the Microsoft Servers. A definite no-no for the company that I am contracting to. No internet access allowed from control system computers.

Tools -> Options -> Debugging -> Output Window -> Module Load Messages -> Off
Removes these messages, see below:



Question is the fact that the PDB file is missing, a problem?

I believe that is a file used for debugging purposes. It depends on you if it is used in your programming. I use it to capture line numbers in error handling.

[Slabs1960]

I do not use it, currently. So, I will ignore it for now and worry about it later if I need it.

Thanks

[jmcilhinney]

A PDB file is a project database file. It contains information that maps your compiled assembly back to your project source code. I'm not sure of all the information it contains but, when an exception is thrown in your EXE and the stack trace includes the line number from the original source code, that's coming from the PDB file. That means that, without it, you may not get as much information in exceptions but I doubt you care that much if it's a system DLL anyway.

[Slabs1960]

After playing with this I found that after setting this Tools-> Options-> Debugging-> Symbols. Select checkbox "Microsoft Symbol Servers". Visual Studio will download PDBs automatically., and running the project. The error obviously disappeared. After turning it off the error was still not there. Problem resolved. Project no longer looked for Microsoft servers.

I now get:
'NamdebConfigurationTool.exe' (CLR v4.0.30319: NamdebConfigurationTool.exe):

Loaded 'C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Accessibility\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Accessibili ty.dll'. Symbols loaded.