topic Hello again Georg in Software Archive

Stopping debugger keeps lock on .pdb file

PKM — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 10:59:26 GMT

I have experienced a rather counter productive bug in parallel studio over the last few months ...

I use the latest version of the Fortran compiler and debugger in parallel studio with visual studio 2012 on windows 2008 r2.

If I hit "stop debugging" in the middle of a debugging session I am no longer able to link the program without restarting visual studio. I get the error message below and it happens consistently when I terminate a debugging session running on normal cpus. If I terminate the session while inside a MIC offload region everything works as it should ...

Hope you are able to reproduce the problem so the bug can be fixed ...

Thanks!

Error 1 fatal error LNK1201: error writing to program database 'xxx.pdb'; check for insufficient disk space, invalid path, or insufficient privilege LINK

Hello,

Georg_Z_Intel — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 12:28:56 GMT

Hello,

it sounds to me like the FEE extension might cause the problem. Does it only occur with Fortran applications or also for C/C++ (not mixed code) applications as well?

To check whether FEE is responsible for the compilation fails, please try the following:

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 and build. If FEE is responsible, then the builds work; if the builds still fail it's a general issue. Close VS again and rename the DLL back.

Thank you & best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger

Hello again Georg

PKM — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 13:18:14 GMT

Hello again Georg

I followed your suggestion and it is indeed the FEE that is causing the problems. Is this something you can reproduce and fix in a future release? I don't know exactly what the FEE is, but it doesn't like a feature you would miss out on ...

Cheers,

Hello,

Georg_Z_Intel — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 09:01:16 GMT

Hello,

Thank you for the investigation. I have forwarded your results to the respective FEE engineers for further analysis.

FEE is just needed for debugging Fortran applications. If you don't use Fortran, you can leave the FEE DLL renamed as a temporary workaround.

As soon as I hear back from engineering I'll update the thread at hand.

Best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger

Hello,

Georg_Z_Intel — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:27:00 GMT

Hello,

after thorough investigation we can exclude FEE being the root cause. Instead, it seems to be a general Microsoft Visual Studio* problem. There a lots of reports about locked PDB files and confirmations from Microsoft*, e.g.:

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Feedback/Details/1121992

It seems (and engineering checked this) that Microsoft Visual Studio* 2015 solves or at lease mitigates the problem. Could you please try that version and let us know if it improves the situation for you?

If you switch to Microsoft Visual Studio* 2015, you can either install the just recently released Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE 2016, or Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE 2015 Update 4 (Update 4 added support for Microsoft Visual Studio* 2015).

Thank you & best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger

I am afraid I don't have

PKM — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:35:55 GMT

I am afraid I don't have access to VS2015. Isn't there anything else I can do to overcome this issue?

It also seems strange to me that it only happens with the CPU debugger and not the MIC debugger, if the root of the problem is in Visual Studio?

Hello,

Georg_Z_Intel — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:47:08 GMT

Hello,

unfortunately we don't know of any other solution (maybe a future update of Microsoft Visual Studio* 2013?). It might seem that our integrations cause the locks but in reality they just trigger what is in Microsoft Visual Studio* already. If you search for PDB file locking online, you'll find lots of reports there. Even hello world applications seem to cause problems.

Our engineers spent quite some time to make sure we're not causing the locking and they are pretty confident.

Thank you & best regards,

Georg Zitzlsberger

Ok .. Thank you Georg ...

PKM — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:48:49 GMT

Ok .. Thank you Georg ...