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How can I skip common classes in VS 2008 debugger when stepping in?

For example, I do not want debugger to step into any of the std:: classes. How can I achieve that?

I've found ways of doing this in VS 2005 and earlier, but not 2008

BIBD
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BarsMonster
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2 Answers2

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You can do this by entering entries into the registry (I know, it sucks). The key you are looking for varies from 32 to 64 bit systems. For 32-bit systems the key is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\NativeDE\StepOver

If you're running a 64 bit OS and a 32 bit Visual Studio the key is

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\NativeDE\StepOver

The Wow6432Node key is a key present for 32 bit applications running on 64 bit systems. (Sidenote: searching the registry for "_RTC_CheckEsp" probably will lead you to the right place, it's a default entry in Visual Studio 9)

The syntax should be familiar to you, but as an example, a simple entry could be string value boost::.*=NoStepInto which will avoid the debugger to step into Boost. See http://www.cprogramming.com/debugging/visual-studio-msvc-debugging-NoStepInto.html for some other examples.

Hope this helps :)

larsmoa
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    Thanks, that is exactly what was needed. Used this std\:\:.*=NoStepInto to skip all STL stuff :-) – BarsMonster Jan 14 '10 at 09:09
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    So useful... Works for VS2010 as well (use `VisualStudio\10.0\NativeDE`) I really think this answer is underrated... :) – Hertzel Guinness Jun 13 '11 at 10:59
  • +1 Thanks so much! I found another description and it just didnt work, I needed the "Wow6432Node"... – Philip Daubmeier Jan 07 '13 at 15:53
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    Thanks! Works for visual studio 2010, but doesn't work for visual studio 2013. All you have to do for it to work in vs2010 is to change all your _RTC_CheckEsp to std\:\:.*=NoStepInto (there is one or two for every Visual studio installed) or change 9.0 to 10.0 in registry path – Mohamed El-Nakeep Feb 17 '14 at 17:54
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Taken from http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/windev/visualstudio.html:

Avoiding Stepping Into Things

It's often useful to avoid stepping into some common code like constructors or overloaded operators. autoexp.dat provides this capability. Add a section called "[ExecutionControl]". Add keys where the key is the function name and the value is "NoStepInto". You can specify an asterisk (*) as a wildcard as the first set of colons for a namespace or class.

autoexp.dat is only read on Visual Studio's start up.

To ignore the function myfunctionname, and all calls to the class CFoo:

[ExecutionControl]
myfunctionname=NoStepInto
CFoo::*=NoStepInto

To ignore construction and assignment of MFC CStrings: (Notice the extra = in CString::operator=.)

[ExecutionControl]
CString::CString=NoStepInto
CString::operator==NoStepInto

To ignore all ATL calls:

[ExecutionControl]
ATL::*=NoStepInto
dalle
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  • autoexp.dat is parsed every time the debugger starts. – Nikola Smiljanić Jan 14 '10 at 08:30
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    I've seen this page, and just tried it again. It does not work, here is what I've found about it: Now, it used to be that to achieve that you used the [ExecutionControl] section in autoexp.dat, and seems it is widely believed to still hold. However, since 2003(!) the home of these setting is the registry. But I don't see a registry key for that, there is nothing similar to 2005's HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\NativeDE\StepOver :-S – BarsMonster Jan 14 '10 at 08:31