Problem with remote web debugging

Debugging through a remote IIS server doesn't work completely. The debugger will not load any symbols for classes defined under the /App_Code directory.

Any work arounds?

[174 byte] By [RobertBeaubien] at [2008-2-22]
# 1
In what directory are the PDB files?

Habib Heydarian
Program Manager
Visual Studio Debugger

HabibHeydarianMSFT at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...
# 2
This is for Visual Studio 2005.

The separate assemblies are still in the /bin folder, but I can no longer find the assembly for the web site itself like VS2003 used to generate. I'm not sure where the .pdb files for the web pages and/or class files in the /App_Code directory are being stored.

RobertBeaubien at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...
# 3
<bump> Any ideas/workarounds?
RobertBeaubien at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...
# 4

Are you using a project, or are you manually attaching to the worker process?
Does this affect all projects, or just one?
Are you deploying built binaries, or are you just letting ASP.NET do the compile?

GreggMiskelly at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...
# 5
I am using a project. This was a vs2003 vb web project that has been converted. The conversion process placed files like the global.asax.vb in the /App_Code directory and I can no longer debug that file. Not sure what you mean by deploying built binaries. I did not change the compile options after converting.
RobertBeaubien at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...
# 6
Do you also see this problem with a new web app?

I can't say that I am an expert on how the conversion process works. However, the way web apps are built is very different in VS 2005 vs. VS 2003. In 2003, your code was compiled inside the IDE and pushed to the server. In 2005, compilation works in the same way that it would work if you made an app without an IDE -- the code is compiled on the server when someone hits the web page. Therefore, to my understanding, a PDB is produced if debug=true is set in your web.config file.

So I would suggest:
1. Check a new web app. This will tell you if you have a system configuration problem, or a problem with your web app.

2. If you have a web app problem, make sure debug is set in your web.config, and try re-saving your source file, which should force ASP.NET to recompile the code.

GreggMiskelly at 2007-9-8 > top of Msdn Tech,Visual Studio,Visual Studio Debugger...

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