Symbols

Having the correct symbols for the operating system and your application makes debugging easier. Symbols provide symbolic information on function names, parameter names, and local variables. They also provide line number information for the source code and data to fix frame pointer omissions (FPOs). Without symbol files, little of this valuable information is available and debugging is less transparent. Symbols are contained in a symbol file, which has a .pdb extension.

Separate packages of symbol files are available for the different Windows operating systems. Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT Server 2003, and Windows Vista require different symbols. In addition, individual service packs and builds might have some additional ...

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