Hit Count Breakpoints

12 posts · Jun 2013 – Nov 2015

What this trail covers

This thread tracks the evolution of breakpoint functionality in Visual Studio. It covers basic breakpoints, hit count, function, filter, tracepoints, conditional, and data breakpoints. The goal is to provide developers with advanced tools for debugging and inspecting application state.

All Microsoft trails

Nov 2015Breakpoint Generator ExtensionIntroduces the Breakpoint Generator extension for Visual Studio 2015 and C# projects. This extension automatically scans source code to identify public methods and places breakpoints with configurable trace messages at the beginning of each method. It leverages the Roslyn SDK for code analysis and supports tracepoints that log messages to the output window, which can also appear as IntelliTrace events. The trace message format is configurable using keywords, and the 'Continue Execution' option can be set to prevent breakpoints from stopping the application. Future plans include support for VB.NET and improved performance.
Apr 2015Continued Improvements for Breakpoint Configuration in Visual Studio 2015This post details specific UI and UX improvements to the Breakpoint Settings peek window in Visual Studio 2015 RC, based on developer feedback. Key changes include adding a 'Saved' message, a 'Close' button, widening edit boxes for Conditions and Actions, and enhancing context menu items to directly open the peek window with specific configuration options pre-selected. It also notes the application of this new UI to Data and Address Breakpoints.
Feb 2015The New Exception Settings Window in Visual Studio 2015Introduced a new Exception Settings tool window in Visual Studio 2015, replacing the previous modal dialog. This window offers improved usability, searchability, and the ability to configure debugger behavior for exceptions. Features include filtering, adding custom exceptions, removing exceptions, resetting to defaults, and context menu options for 'Continue when unhandled in user code'. The post also clarifies that the debugger always breaks on unhandled exceptions and that the setting for user-unhandled exceptions is now under a context menu.
Jan 2015Understanding Exceptions while debugging with Visual StudioThis post details the classifications of exceptions (First Chance, User-unhandled, Unhandled) and how to configure the debugger to break for them using the new Exception Settings window in Visual Studio 2015. It also provides an example of debugging a NullReferenceException using both the Output window and IntelliTrace, highlighting the benefits of historical debugging.
Nov 2014Introducing the Child Process Debugging Power ToolIntroduced a power tool for Visual Studio that enables child process debugging. This tool automatically attaches a debugger to newly created processes spawned by the application being debugged. It supports launching projects (F5) and attaching to processes. For .NET code, it requires enabling mixed-mode debugging. The tool provides customizable settings for debugger type and specific process behavior, with options to save settings to the solution's .suo file or an XML file.
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Nov 2014Set breakpoints on auto-implemented properties with Visual Studio 2015This post introduces the ability to set breakpoints directly on auto-implemented properties in Visual Studio 2015. Previously, this required workarounds such as using function breakpoints or converting auto-properties to full properties. The enhancement, attributed to the Roslyn team, allows developers to directly set breakpoints on the getter or setter of an auto-implemented property, simplifying debugging workflows.
Oct 2014New Breakpoint Configuration Experience in Visual Studio 2015This post details the updated breakpoint configuration experience in Visual Studio 2015. It introduces a non-modal Peek window for configuring breakpoint settings, categorizing them into 'Conditions' and 'Actions'. Specific improvements highlighted include easier access to conditional statements, hit counts (with options for equals, multiple of, and greater than or equal to), filters (for process, thread, or machine), and tracepoints (for logging messages to the output window with automatic execution resumption). The post provides walkthroughs demonstrating the use of hit counts to debug a failing character shift in an encoding library and conditional statements to debug a decoding issue in a Web API scenario. It also explains how to use tracepoints with pseudo-variables to log encoded and decoded byte shifts, and how to combine conditions and actions with filter breakpoints to reduce noise in the output.
Oct 2013Data BreakpointsThis post details the use of data breakpoints for C++ developers in Visual Studio. It explains how to set a data breakpoint to stop execution when a specific memory location changes, which is useful for debugging memory corruption issues. The post provides a step-by-step example using a C++ sample, demonstrating how to find the memory address of a variable (m_myint) and set a data breakpoint on that address to identify where the value changes. It also mentions that this feature is available in Visual Studio 2015 and refers to MSDN documentation for earlier versions.
Oct 2013Conditional BreakpointsThis post details the practical application of conditional breakpoints in Visual Studio for debugging memory leaks. It demonstrates how to combine hit count breakpoints on constructors to obtain object addresses, and then use these addresses as conditions on tracepoints to filter output and isolate the specific object causing the leak. The post illustrates this with a C++ example, showing how to trace AddRef and Release calls and narrow down the output to a specific object's refcount.
Oct 2013Filter BreakpointsThis post details how to use filter breakpoints in Visual Studio to debug multi-threaded applications more effectively. It explains how to set filter breakpoints based on MachineName, ProcessId, ProcessName, ThreadId, and ThreadName, and demonstrates how to use the Threads window to identify the correct ThreadId for filtering. It also introduces thread naming as a way to simplify filter breakpoint configuration across debug sessions.
Oct 2013Function BreakpointsIntroduces and details the Function Breakpoint feature in Visual Studio, allowing developers to set breakpoints on functions by name. This feature simplifies debugging by handling function overloads and enabling breakpoints in code where source is not readily available, such as ATL code. The post also updates the feature to reflect the experience in Visual Studio 2015 and provides updated shortcuts.
Oct 2013Hit Count BreakpointsIntroduces and demonstrates the use of hit count breakpoints in Visual Studio for debugging. Explains how to set hit count breakpoints to stop execution after a specific number of hits, use '>=' for skipping ahead in recursive functions, and use a large hit count to simply count iterations. Provides code samples and screenshots to illustrate the process.
Oct 2013Breakpoints in Visual Studio 2013This post serves as an index for a series of blog posts detailing advanced breakpoint features in Visual Studio 2013. It introduces hit count, function, filter, tracepoints, conditional, and data breakpoints, linking to individual posts for each topic. It also encourages user feedback and points to MSDN documentation.
Jun 2013Seeing function return values in the Visual Studio 2013 debuggerIntroduces the ability to see function return values in the Visual Studio 2013 debugger for .NET code. This feature allows developers to examine return values when stepping over or out of functions, especially when the return value is not stored in a local variable. Return values are displayed in the 'Autos Window' and can be accessed via the pseudo-variable '$ReturnValue' in the Watch and Immediate windows. The post provides a C# code example and screenshots to demonstrate the functionality. It also notes exceptions for structs.