topic symbol loading in Intel® Fortran Compiler

symbol loading

tiho — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:59:16 GMT

Something happened to my system (too many windows updates I think) and now the symbol loading is very slow when I star a debug ... about 15 sec. Anyone knows how to fix that problem?

'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\ntdll.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\kernel32.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\KernelBase.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Intel\\Compiler\\11.1\\065\\lib\\intel64\\libiomp5md.dll', Binary was not built with debug information.
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\imagehlp.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\msvcrt.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\guard64.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\user32.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\gdi32.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\lpk.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\usp10.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\advapi32.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\sechost.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\rpcrt4.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\imm32.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\msctf.dll'
'IntelDev.exe': Loaded 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\fltLib.dll'

symbol loading

Georg_Z_Intel — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:16:16 GMT

Hello,

there can be various reasons why it (suddenly?) takes longer to start a debugging session. Let's start with something I think that could apply here:

Can you try with disabled "Check for publisher's certificate revocation" like...

(Found either via Internet Explorer* or Control Panel)

Our plug-ins are signed and there's a validity check taking place each time they're loaded. Sometimes this check can add additional latency. In your case it might be the debugging extensions causing the delay.
Please only try this workaround temporarily as it might be a security violation for you!

If this does not help can you please provide me more information, like:
- which product version are you using and for which architecture(s) (I assume it's 11.1 update 4 for 64 bit?)
- the underlying OS and Visual Studio version
- did you try to start a debugging session with all windows (BPs, threads, callstack, ...) closed; do you notice a difference?

I hope that helps you,

Georg Zitzlsberger

symbol loading

tiho — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:21:15 GMT

The above option was not check so it wasn't causing this. The product info is for Windows 7, Visual studio 2008, fortran 11.1.065. The following hotfixes were also recently installed and probably caused the problem.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
Version 9.0.21022.8 RTM
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 3.5 SP1

Installed Edition: IDE Standard

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB945282) KB945282
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945282.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB946040) KB946040
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946040.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB946308) KB946308
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946308.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB946344) KB946344
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946344.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB946581) KB946581
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946581.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB947173) KB947173
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947173.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB947540) KB947540
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947540.

Hotfix for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB947789) KB947789
This hotfix is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this hotfix will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947789.

Intel Visual Fortran Compiler Integration Package ID: w_cprof_p_11.1.065
Intel Visual Fortran Compiler Integration for Microsoft Visual Studio* 2008, 11.1.3471.2008, Copyright (C) 2002-2010 Intel Corporation
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU (KB972221) KB972221
This update is for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Shell (integrated mode) - ENU.
If you later install a more recent service pack, this update will be uninstalled automatically.
For more information, visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972221.

symbol loading

Georg_Z_Intel — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:56:52 GMT

Thank you for providing more information.

There can be lots of other reasons for the long delay. I'd like to narrow it down with you by trying the following steps:

i) Please create a simple C/C++ "hello world" project (using VS compiler). Set a BP @ main and start the debugger. If there's the same latency the root cause is related to global configuration/environment.
ii) If not, try a simple Fortran "hello world" project (using IFORT) instead. Again, start the debugger. In case latency is experienced now, it's related to Fortran extensions, high likely because of the plug-ins.
iii) And last, if the steps above did not reproduce the problem, it must be related to your project.

Solutions:
If there's latency for case i), please check VS configuration. Maybe external symbols files are retrieved, e.g. via HTTP or network share.

(You'll find this configuration via "Tools->Options...;Debugging/Symbols")

Deactivate it or use caching instead.

In case there's latency for ii), you can temporarily deactivate our Fortran expression evaluation (FEE) plug-in by renaming ForDbgSW.dll (\Common7\Packages\Debugger\ForDbgSW.dll) to DONTUSE_ForDbgSW.dll. Please do that only with VS closed. Afterwards, start VS again and try to debug. I'd assume the latency is gone for this case now. Close VS again and rename the DLL back.
FEE is used for evaluations/watches/autos/... for all Fortran applications. Maybe there are windows open that make use of it (Autos, Locals, Watches, BPs, ...). Let me know if the problem still exists with just the source window open when starting & running the debugger.

If latency exists only for case iii):
Are there any dependencies on network shares? VS does not work well if projects or other components are stored non-local.

Please let me know about the result.

Best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger

symbol loading

IanH — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:06:25 GMT

Does the delay happen when one particular module (DLL) is being loaded (watch progress in the output window) - or is it just generally slow? I've had problems where the path to the PDB file stored in a Windows or Office DLL was a UNC path that pointed somewhere silly, consequently everytime that DLL got loaded VS would just sit there for 30 seconds or so while it tried in vain to find the relevant Microsoft file server on our company WAN.

symbol loading

Georg_Z_Intel — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:06:16 GMT

Hello,

yes, that's a good point. We should distinguish here:
Either the application being debugged has dependencies that delay its execution or the debugger (environment) itself is causing a delay.
For the former one will see things going on in the output window, like loading DLLs as IanH mentioned already. In case of the latter one won't see any progress in the output window while the other debugger windows are stalled for some time.

IanH, aren't those external PDB files configured with the "Tools->Options...;Debugging/Symbols" configuration (above). Or did you see another way to use external PDB files. How did you turn them off in your case?

Thanks,

Georg Zitzlsberger

symbol loading

IanH — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:49:13 GMT

In my case it was a particular DLL that was causing problems (I think it was an office variant of Gdiplus.dll). At the time I used a binary editor to change the pdb path in the dll header from \\unc-share-name\path\... to C:\iggle-piggle\... which avoided having the debugger hit the network to find out that the file didn't exist. I thought I played with VS and WinDbg settings at the time to fix it without success, but that may have just been user incompetence.

symbol loading

tiho — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:44:15 GMT

Problem solved. It was issue i) from georg answer - I used cache and teh problem is gone.