SRIV Reading & Interpreting Crash/Dump .MDMP Files

Voltarox

Voltarox

The crash/dump .mdmp file that is generated in SRIV when it crashes is a usefull file for figuring out modding problems.:cool:

Many of us here have submitted .mdmp files for the good people at Volition to decipher for us and many thanks to them for their help.;)

Understandably the Volition staff are busy working on their projects and have limited spare time to review literally every .mdmp file submitted.

So in order to help streamline and improve the process of helping many people here with their crash reports, I repectfully request from Volition to shed some light on what information the .mdmp files contain and how to read and interpret them.:D

This way we can help people here and help ourselves with a better understanding of the .mdmp files.

Thank you.;)
 
Voltarox said:
The crash/dump .mdmp file that is generated in SRIV when it crashes is a usefull file for figuring out modding problems.:cool:

Many of us here have submitted .mdmp files for the good people at Volition to decipher for us and many thanks to them for their help.;)

Understandably the Volition staff are busy working on their projects and have limited spare time to review literally every .mdmp file submitted.

So in order to help streamline and improve the process of helping many people here with their crash reports, I repectfully request from Volition to shed some light on what information the .mdmp files contain and how to read and interpret them.:D

This way we can help people here and help ourselves with a better understanding of the .mdmp files.

Thank you.;)
Click to expand...
Minidumps are a standard program debugging thing - they contain a small amount of the internal state from a program when it crashes.

They're a generic format - not specific to each program, but to interpret them in a meaningful way you need the original PDB file for the EXE that was running - the debugging symbols. It helps to have the original source code too.

Obviously these are things Volition are not going to want to share! :)

Edit: you also need a good deal of knowledge about 1. how to program, 2. how to use a sensible debugger and 3. the program you're debugging.

Edit 2: edit harder: you *can* debug a program from the minidump without symbols if you are a crazy person. I am that special sort of crazy person but I wouldn't recommend trying it to anyone else :)
 
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Minimaul said:
Minidumps are a standard program debugging thing - they contain a small amount of the internal state from a program when it crashes.

They're a generic format - not specific to each program, but to interpret them in a meaningful way you need the original PDB file for the EXE that was running - the debugging symbols. It helps to have the original source code too.

Obviously these are things Volition are not going to want to share! :)

Edit: you also need a good deal of knowledge about 1. how to program, 2. how to use a sensible debugger and 3. the program you're debugging.
Click to expand...

Thank you Minimaul.;)
 
Minimaul said:
Edit 2: edit harder: you *can* debug a program from the minidump without symbols if you are a crazy person. I am that special sort of crazy person but I wouldn't recommend trying it to anyone else :)
Click to expand...

Not that I am a "crazy" person, however, I am a persistant one for knowledge.:D

How do you interpret the .mdmp file without symbols and are these symbols significantly important ?:confused:
 
Voltarox said:
Not that I am a "crazy" person, however, I am a persistant one for knowledge.:D

How do you interpret the .mdmp file without symbols and are these symbols significantly important ?:confused:
Click to expand...
I hate to answer it like this, but if you need to ask you're not going to be able to do so.

The symbols are massively important for doing it sanely.
 
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