Preparing to Software Release

This page describes the steps you should perform to properly read error reports sent by end users of your application and to recover call stacks from minidump files correctly.

Before the release, it is recommended to check if exceptions are properly intercepted in the main thread and in all worker threads of your application (use the crEmulateCrash() function).

When you are ready to release your software, you should save its binary files, debugging information (symbols) and source code. When a crash report comes in, you use the release build, source code and symbols you saved, along with the minidump included in the crash report, to debug the crash.

Saving Binaries, Debugging Information and Source Code

First, you need to save your binary files (EXE, DLL) and corresponding debugging symbols (PDB files). To do this, create a directory by the name of your project. For example, if you develop the project 'MyApp', name your directory 'MyApp'. In that directory create a subdirectory for your new software release, for example '1.0.0'.

Then copy all binary files (*.EXE, *.DLL) from your project output and all debugging symbol files (*.PDB) from your project output to the directory you have just created.

Note:

It is also recommended that you copy the CrashRpt binaries and debugging symbols, too. This helps to ensure you will be able to correctly recover the call stacks from your minidump files.

Finally, you should have the following directory structure (in the example below, XXXX is the placeholder for the CrashRpt version):

  MyApp\
      1.0.0\
          MyApp.exe
          MyApp.pdb
          ...
          CrashRptXXXX.dll
          CrashRptXXXX.pdb

It is also recommended that you save the source code that you used for compiling the application. If you use a version control system (e.g., SVN), mark the current revision of the code with tag to be able to restore its state later.

These steps should be performed for exactly the same software build that you plan to release. If you rebuild (or at least partially rebuild) the project after the files have been copied, you must copy the files again.

Note:

Files that you have copied should be stored during the software life time. PDB files should NOT be included in the software distribution and should NOT be sent to end users. You should never ship PDB files as they will not only take up more space, but they will also make reverse engineering your code much easier.

Including CrashRpt Files in Your Software Distribution

You must distribute the following files with your software (XXXX is the placeholder for the CrashRpt version):

• CrashRptXXXX.dll
• CrashSenderXXXX.exe
• dbghelp.dll

The CrashRptXXXX.dll and CrashSenderXXXX.exe are core CrashRpt modules. dbghelp.dll (Microsoft Debug Help Library) is a dependent module.

It is recommended that you place these files to the directory where your application executable file is located.

It is also required that you copy a language INI file crashrpt_lang.ini to the folder where CrashSenderXXXX.exe is located. You can distribute several language INI files with your software. On install, rename an appropriate file to crashrpt_lang.ini and copy it to the folder where your CrashSenderXXXX.exe is located. For additional information about language files, please refer to Internationalization Support page.

Note:

dbghelp.dll library is required to generate minidump files. dbghelp.dll is included in Windows XP distribution and in later versions of Windows, and most user machines have this library installed. This means it is possible (but not recommended) to ignore distribution of dbghelp.dll, if you strongly wish.

Further reading: Using Error Reports.