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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Free .Net Deadlock Debugging Tool

Corneliu, creator of the GUI debugging tool HawkEye, has a debugging tool that works against most .NET programs, without recompiling them. The follwoing are its features:

1. The tool does not require to have the code re-compiled in any way or form, with any external dependencies, nor reference any external library or have you modify your code to use any special type of locks inside your code.
2. It works on release builds with no PDB files.
3. It works on running processes or previously captured memory dumps.
4. It detects deadlocks across multiple threads and returns detailed call-stack and lock usage information.
5. It only detect deadlocks in which threads are actively waiting for locks acquired by other threads.
6. It does not detect the dining philosophers problem or deadlocks created in combination of time waits + wake/check + lock.
7. It has an external dependency on the cdb.exe (part of the the free Debugging Tools for Windows package from Microsoft).
8. It requires absolutely no installation. It an xcopy deployment.
9. And best of all it’s free (source code to be published soon)

The tool is discussed @ http://www.acorns.com.au/blog/?p=129 and may be obtained @ http://www.acorns.com.au/files/ACorns.Debugging.DeadlockTests.1.0.1.zip

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I had been a senior software developer working for HP and GM. I am interested in intelligent and scientific computing. I am passionate about computers as enablers for human imagination. The contents of this site are not in any way, shape, or form endorsed, approved, or otherwise authorized by HP, its subsidiaries, or its officers and shareholders.

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