Capture First Chance Exceptions Using Debug Diagnostic Tool

Steps to Capture the First Exception Using the Debug Diagnostic Tool (DebugDiag)

In the world of software development, debugging is an essential skill. Debug Diag Tool (DebugDiag) is a powerful utility designed to help you troubleshoot a variety of issues related to application crashes, freezes, and performance bottlenecks. One of the important features of DebugDiag is capturing the first exception.

no way first chance exception Occurs when an exception occurs before the application has handled it.

This blog walks you through the steps to effectively catch these exceptions.

Download Debug Diagnostics 2.3

• When an exception occurs, the runtime catches it the first time before the catch block is executed. This is considered a “first chance” event.
• If an exception goes unhandled (uncaught), it propagates up the call stack and eventually becomes a “second chance” exception when it goes unhandled.

Before starting the steps, check the following:

• You have the Debug Diagnostic Tool (DebugDiag) installed on your system.
• Administrator privileges to configure and run DebugDiag.
• Access to the application or process you want to monitor.

Step 1: Run DebugDiag

First, open the DebugDiag tool. You can find it under “Debug Diagnostic Tools” in the Start menu. You must run it as administrator to access all features.

Step 2: Create a new rule

Once DebugDiag opens, you will need to create a new rule to capture the exception.

• Click the “Rules” tab.
• Select “Add Rule”.
• Select “Conflict” as the rule type and click “Next.”

Step 3: Select Target Process – IIS Web Application Pool

The next step is to select the application or process you want to monitor.

• You can select from a list of running processes or provide an executable path.
• Select the target process and click “Next”.

  

Step 4: Configure exceptions

In this step, you configure the tool to capture the first exception.

• Click Exceptions in Advanced Settings.
• Under ‘Exceptions’, click ‘Add Exception’.
• If you know the exact exception, you can enter it in “Optional exception name” or select an exception from the specified exception names.

  

• Set “Task Type” to “Full Userdump”.
• Set “Operation Limit” to 10
• Click “Save and Close”.
• Click “OK” to save your settings.

For example, if you need to configure exceptions. Select CLR (.NET) 4.x exception and mention the exception name as follows: System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException.

Here’s how to set it up:

If you have a problem with your application and the exception name looks like this: System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException, You can enable debug diagnostics for the first exception as follows:

Step 5: Specify advanced settings

DebugDiag provides advanced settings to fine-tune the capture process.

• You can configure options such as how many user dumps to capture, where to save the dump files, and notifications.
• Adjust these settings as per your requirement and click “OK”.

Step 6: Activate the rule

After configuring a rule, you must activate it.

• Click “Finish” to complete rule setup.
• Your rule will now appear in the ‘Rules’ tab. Make sure it’s checked to enable it.

Step 7: Monitor and Capture Exceptions

When a rule is activated, DebugDiag monitors selected processes for exceptions.

• When the first exception occurs, DebugDiag captures a full user dump of the process.
• You can view captured dumps at a specified location.

Capturing the first exception using the debug diagnostic tool (DebugDiag) is an important step in troubleshooting application crashes. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can effectively monitor your application, capture important exception data, and analyze the root cause of crashes. This proactive approach helps us improve the stability and reliability of our software, ultimately providing a better experience for our users.

Here are some common exceptions you might encounter and want to capture:

• AccessViolationException: Indicates that an invalid memory access occurred.
• NullReferenceException: Occurs when an attempt is made to access a null object reference.
• OutOfMemoryException: Occurs when system memory is insufficient.
• StackOverflowException: Occurs when the execution stack overflows due to excessive recursion.
• Argument exception: Occurs when an invalid argument is passed to the method.
• InvalidOperationException: Indicates that a method call is invalid for the current state of the object.
• FileNotFoundException: Occurs when an attempt to access a file that does not exist on disk fails.

By capturing and analyzing these exceptions, you can gain deeper insight into application behavior and improve overall software quality.

For more information and resources about DebugDiag and exception handling, consider:

Happy debugging!