Praise for Advanced .NET Debugging

“While the .NET environment provides a developer with a powerful toolbox to accomplish their goals, it can often be a daunting task to debug some of the issues that inevitably crop up during software development. This book provides the crucial details about how the CLR works internally, which you need to know to diagnose many classes of bugs in your .NET programs, and it provides clear examples of how to solve the same types of issues we see our customers struggle with on a daily basis. This book is required reading for all serious .NET developers.”

–Lee Culver, CLR Quick Response Team, Microsoft Corporation

 

“Have you ever wondered why your .NET application is not responding? Or why it’s intermittently consuming high CPU? Or crashing? When things go wrong you need to think low level, using the proper knowledge and tools to investigate the internals of your application. Advanced .NET Debugging delivers the knowledge necessary to quickly isolate nasty software problems. Welcome to the debugging world!”

–Roberto A. Farah, Senior Premier Field Engineer, Microsoft Corporation

 

“Mario Hewardt’s Advanced .NET Debugging is an excellent resource for both beginner and experienced developers working with .NET. The book is also packed with many debugging tips and discussions of CLR internals that will benefit developers architecting software. I highly recommend Mario’s book.”

–Jeffrey Richter, consultant, trainer, and author at Wintellect

 

“Mario has done it again. His Advanced Windows Debugging (coauthored with Daniel Pravat) is an invaluable resource for native code debugging, and Advanced .NET Debugging achieves the same quality, clarity and breadth to make it just as invaluable for .NET debugging. The detail he provides on how to measure managed heap usage, understand the behavior of the garbage collector, and how to track down synchronization bugs will make you more efficient at finding and fixing bugs in your managed code projects.”

–Mark Russinovich, Technical Fellow, Microsoft Corporation

 

“This book talks about tools such as SOS in the kind of depth that I have not seen elsewhere. It’s a definite aid in understanding and debugging managed application behavior.”

–Maoni Stephens, GC Developer, Microsoft Corporation

 

“Advanced .NET Debugging is essential reading for someone who wants to get under the covers and obtain an intimate understanding of how the .NET Common Language Runtime works. It clearly identifies the layout of the system and how the assemblies are loaded and organized. I recommend it to anyone who wants to debug more complex issues brought on by synchronization problems and corruption. It also effectively addresses the difficult task of postmortem debugging.”

–Pat Styles, Microsoft Corporation 

The Only Complete, Practical Guide to Fixing the Toughest .NET Bugs

Advanced .NET Debugging is the first focused, pragmatic guide to tracking down today’s most complex and challenging .NET application bugs. It is the only book to focus entirely on using powerful native debugging tools, including WinDBG, NTSD, and CDB, to debug .NET applications. Using these tools, author Mario Hewardt explains how to identify the real root causes of problems–far more quickly than you ever could with other debuggers.

Hewardt first introduces the key concepts needed to successfully use .NET’s native debuggers. Next, he turns to sophisticated debugging techniques, using real-world examples that demonstrate many common C# programming errors.

This book enables you to

• Make practical use of postmortem debugging, including PowerDBG and other “power tools”
• Understand the debugging details and implications of the new .NET CLR 4.0
• Master and successfully use Debugging Tools for Windows, as well as SOS, SOSEX, CLR Profiler, and other powerful tools
• Gain a deeper, more practical understanding of CLR internals, such as examining thread-specific data, managed heap and garbage collector, interoperability layer, and .NET exceptions
• Solve difficult synchronization problems, managed heap problems, interoperability problems, and much more
• Generate and successfully analyze crash dumps 

A companion web site (advanceddotnetdebugging.com) contains all sample code, examples, and bonus content.

-- Bob Wilton, Escalation Engineer, Critical Problem Resolution Team, Microsoft

“An excellent reference for both intermediate and advanced debuggers: highly practical, and filled with tricks and strategies. This book stands out from all other Win32 debugging literature, thanks to its in-depth examples–including resolving intricate problems like stack and heap corruptions.”

-- Kinshuman, Development Lead, Windows Core OS Division, Microsoft

The First In-Depth, Real-World, Insider’s Guide to Powerful Windows Debugging

For Windows developers, few tasks are more challenging than debugging–-or more crucial. Reliable and realistic information about Windows debugging has always been scarce. Now, with over 15 years of experience two of Microsoft’s system-level developers present a thorough and practical guide to Windows debugging ever written.

Mario Hewardt and Daniel Pravat cover debugging throughout the entire application lifecycle and show how to make the most of the tools currently available–-including Microsoft’s powerful native debuggers and third-party solutions.

To help you find real solutions fast, this book is organized around real-world debugging scenarios. Hewardt and Pravat use detailed code examples to illuminate the complex debugging challenges professional developers actually face. From core Windows operating system concepts to security, Windows® Vista™ and 64-bit debugging, they address emerging topics head-on–and nothing is ever oversimplified or glossed over!

This book enables you to

• Master today’s most powerful Windows debugging tools, including NTSD, CDB, WinDbg, KD, and ADPlus
• Debug code that wasn’t designed or written for easy debugging
• Understand debuggers “under the hood,” and manage symbols and sources efficiently
• Debug complex memory corruptions related to stacks and heaps
• Resolve complex security problems
• Debug across processes: identity tracking, RPC debugger extensions, and tracking IPCs with Ethereal
• Find and fix resource leaks, such as memory and handle leaks.
• Debug common thread synchronization problems
• Learn when and how to write custom debugger extensions
• Perform “postmortem debugging” using crash dumps and Windows Error Reporting
• Automate debugging with DebugDiag and the Analyze Debugger command

Whether you’re a system-level or application developer, Advanced Windows Debugging delivers the deep understanding of debugging that could save you weeks on your very next project.

Part I  Overview

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Tools

Chapter 2 Introduction to the Debuggers

Chapter 3 Debugger Uncovered

Chapter 4 Managing Symbol and Source Files

Part II Applied Debugging

Chapter 5 Memory Corruptions Part I – Stacks

Chapter 6 Memory Corruptions Part I – Heaps

Chapter 7 Security

Chapter 8 Inter-process Communication

Chapter 9 Resource Leaks

Chapter 10 Synchronization

Part III Advanced Topics

Chapter 11 Writing Custom Debugger Extensions

Chapter 12 64-bit Debugging

Chapter 13 Postmortem Debugging

Chapter 14 Power Tools

Chapter 15 Windows Vista Fundamentals

Appendix A Application Verifier Test Settings

If you like Advanced Windows Debugging, keep an eye out for  ADVANCED .NET DEBUGGING COMING IN NOV. 2009.