Debugging the release version of a program

Transferred from: www.codeguru.com

Something a lot of programmers don't know is that you can debug the release version of a program as easy as the debug version. I didn't know this until I 've read John Robbins 'bugslayer 'column In the 'Microsoft System Journal', limit l 1998 (vol 13, No 4 ):

In msvc you can set all of your project's deployments in the Project Settings dialog.

1. Select the all invocations option in the settings for ComboBox.
2. on the C/C ++ tab, select program database in the debug info ComboBox.
3. On the link tab, with the category ComboBox on debug, check the debug info checkbox and the Microsoft format.

If you use your own make file use/Zi switch with Cl. EXE and use the/debug and/PDB:

Switches for Link. EXE,
That's all there is, now you can set breakpoints and watch variables as usual. be aware that due to the optimizer not all symbols can be watch and the execution of the line may be in a different order!

A common error that affects only the release version of a program is when you use assert instead of verify. remember asserts will compile to nothing in a release version but verify does. so if you call a function like assert (dosomething () This function will not be called in the release version!

A release version of a program can behave different than the debug version due to optimier settings. If you find a strange/buggy Behavoir disable every optimazion and try again.