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Levels of Debugging Support (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)

  • Article

1/5/2010

When you create an OS design, the IDE creates a Debug configuration and a Release configuration of the OS design and sets build options for each configuration.

The level of support for debugging in a default Debug configuration differs from the level of support for debugging in a default Release configuration. The choice of build options in a configuration determines the level of debugging support in the run-time image that you build.

The following table shows the level of debugging support in the default configurations provided by Platform Builder.

Configuration Description

Debug
  • Uses .lib files from %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU>\Debug.
  • Places object files in directories named Debug.
  • Provides full symbolic debugging information, in Microsoft format.
  • Provides the ability to turn debug zones on and off.
  • No optimization. Optimization generally makes debugging more difficult.
  • Sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=debug.

For more information, see Building a Run-Time Image From a Debug Configuration.

Release
  • Uses .lib files from %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common\Oak\Lib\<CPU>\Retail.
  • Places object files in directories named Retail.
  • Provides no symbolic debugging information.
  • Optimized for speed.
  • Has a smaller run-time image than the run-time image built from the Debug configuration of the same OS design.
  • Sets the environment variable WINCEDEBUG=retail.

For more information, see Building a Run-Time Image From a Release Configuration and Using the Kernel Debugger with a Run-Time Image Built From a Release Configuration.

For information about mixing debug and release bits in your run-time image, see Combining Debug and Release Bits.

For information about how to enable KITL to maximize debugging functionality, see Supporting KITL in an OS Design.

For information about environment variables that you can set for a configuration, see Setting or Clearing an Environment Variable (Visual Studio) .

See Also

Tasks

Compiler and Linker Options for Debugging

Other Resources

Debugging Setup