Using Windows dump file for Borland C++ application

Question

I have a dump file generated using Windows Task Manager. The process it is created for is a Borland (now Embarcadero) C++ application.

Is it possible to use such a file for Borland applications? If yes, then how?

Answer 1

As you have created a dump of an application, that's called a user mode crash dump. Such a dump is typically analyzed in Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft WinDbg or DebugDiag.

The debuggers are available for free. WinDbg is part of the Debugging Tools for Windows and Visual Studio 2015 is provided as a Community Edition. For WinDbg, install both versions, x64 and x86 so that you can debug any kind of dump. DebugDiag has a simple UI and doesn't allow doing manual analysis.

If you have taken the default Task Manager of a 64 bit OS to take a dump of a 32 bit application, you might be unlucky though. Try getting a 32 bit dump for a 32 bit application, that's better if you're new to debugging. This answer shows the various ways of getting good dumps. This will also be fine for you, not only for .NET.

Analyzing the dump in DebugDiag

1. Open the dump in DebugDiag
2. Select a type of analysis
3. Run
4. Read the HTML report it generated

Analyzing the dump in Visual Studio

1. Open the dump in Visual Studio
2. Press the green play button
3. Look at the message to see the exception
4. Look at the call stack
5. ...

Visual Studio has many commands and possibilities, but explaining them all here is too broad. If you have a more specific idea of what you want to know about your dump, ask a new question.

Analyzing the dump in WinDbg

1. Open the crash dump in WinDbg (use correct bitness).
2. Set up the symbols
3. Start analyzing, e.g.
   • ~ to get a list of threads, ~xs to select a thread (where x is the thread number)
   • k to get a call stack
   • .exr -1 to get info about an exception
   • !analyze -v to perform an automatic analysis
   • ...

Learning WinDbg is a hard task, since most things are done via cryptic commands and not via UI, but it can do almost everything.

For specific problems, ask questions using the windbg tag.