the blog => anything goes : Visual Studio

Just Attach

Senthil — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:17:27 GMT

Attach to what? To the process you want to debug, of course.

How many developers attach to and debug arbitrary processes running on their machines? Very few, I’d imagine. And I’d think that even those few people typically prefer Windbg or an equivalent debugger to the one supplied with Visual Studio.

Which means that aside from ASP .NET developers, almost all of us using Visual Studio attach to the application that we are working on and nothing else. To attach

1. You summon the “Attach to Process” dialog by hitting Ctrl + Alt + P. Or if you are a mouse person, you go to Debug –> Attach to Process.

2. You search for your application in the list of processes shown and select it.

3. You optionally change some settings and then hit OK.

The second step can be particularly annoying, especially if the name of your application starts with a particularly common letter that occurs in the latter half of the English alphabet (it’s a tie between ‘s’ and ‘v’ on my machine). Even otherwise, if you’ve worked on the application for a significant amount of time, the keystrokes to select it becomes part of muscle memory (down arrow, down arrow, Enter, for e.g.,), and you occasionally end up attaching to the wrong application because some other process sneaked in. Surely there must be a better way?

Enter JustAttach – a macro that does just that. It finds out the output file path of the startup project of your solution and automatically attaches to it.

The full macro code is at the end of the blog post. You can also download, unzip, open Macro Explorer (View –> Other Windows –> Macro Explorer) and select Load Macro Project to start using it right away.

Do your fingers a favor by binding the command to a VS shortcut (Tools –> Options –> Keyboard, type JustAttach in the textbox and choose a shortcut like Ctrl + Alt+ Y) ; your fingers will thank you for it :).

   1: Imports System

   2: Imports EnvDTE

   3: Imports EnvDTE80

   4: Imports EnvDTE90

   5: Imports System.Diagnostics

6:

   7: Public Module SenthilMacros

   8:     Public Sub JustAttach()

   9:         Dim solutionBuild As SolutionBuild = DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild

  10:         Dim startupProjectName As String = solutionBuild.StartupProjects(0)

11:

  12:         If String.IsNullOrEmpty(startupProjectName) Then

  13:             MsgBox("Could not attach because the startup project could not be determined", MsgBoxStyle.Critical, "Failed to Attach")

  14:             Return

  15:         End If

16:

  17:         Dim startupProject As Project = FindProject(startupProjectName.Trim())

  18:         Dim outputFilePath As String = FindOutputFileForProject(startupProject)

19:

  20:         If String.IsNullOrEmpty(outputFilePath) Then

  21:             MsgBox("Could not attach because output file path for the startup project could not be determined", MsgBoxStyle.Critical, "Failed to Attach")

  22:             Return

  23:         End If

24:

  25:         Attach(outputFilePath)

  26:     End Sub

  27:     Sub Attach(ByVal file As String)

  28:         Dim process As EnvDTE.Process

29:

  30:         For Each process In DTE.Debugger.LocalProcesses

  31:             If process.Name = file Then

  32:                 process.Attach()

  33:                 Return

  34:             End If

  35:         Next

36:

  37:         MsgBox("Could not attach because " + file + " is not found in the list of running processes", MsgBoxStyle.Critical, "Failed to Attach")

  38:     End Sub

39:

  40:     Function FindProject(ByVal projectName As String) As Project

  41:         Dim project As Project

  42:         For Each project In DTE.Solution.Projects

  43:             If project.UniqueName = projectName Then

  44:                 Return project

  45:             End If

  46:         Next

  47:     End Function

  48:     Function FindOutputFileForProject(ByVal project As Project) As String

  49:         Dim fileName As String = project.Properties.Item("OutputFileName").Value.ToString()

  50:         Dim projectPath As String = project.Properties.Item("LocalPath").Value.ToString()

51:

  52:         Dim config As Configuration = project.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration

  53:         Dim buildPath = config.Properties.Item("OutputPath").Value.ToString()

54:

  55:         If String.IsNullOrEmpty(fileName) Or String.IsNullOrEmpty(projectPath) Then

  56:             Return ""

  57:         End If

58:

  59:         Dim folderPath As String = System.IO.Path.Combine(projectPath, buildPath)

  60:         Return System.IO.Path.Combine(folderPath, fileName)

61:

  62:     End Function

  63: End Module

64:

For each method in file

Senthil — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:07:00 GMT

ForEachMethodInFile is a Visual Studio macro that lets you do custom actions for each method defined in the current file. I’ve used it in the past to generate logging code to log the start and end of each method, to generate default error handling code etc.. And today someone over at CodeProject wanted to generate a breakpoint at the start of each method. The common thread here is the performing of some custom action for each method in the current file. I figured it would be useful for a lot of people if the “for each method in file” logic is available as a separate library, and that is what is ForEachMethodInFile.

The macro project is available here. To provide a custom action, all you have to do is create a new macro project, and do

  1: Imports System
  2: Imports EnvDTE
  3: Imports EnvDTE80
  4: Imports EnvDTE90
  5: Imports System.Diagnostics
  6: Imports ForEachMethodInFile
  7: 
  8: Public Module BreakOnEachMethodEntry
  9: 
 10:     Public Sub Run()
 11:         ForEachMethod.DoAction(AddressOf AddBreakPoint)
 12:     End Sub
 13: 
 14:     Function AddBreakPoint(ByVal method As CodeFunction)
 15:         DTE.Debugger.Breakpoints.Add(method.Name)
 16:     End Function
 17: 
 18: End Module

You define a callback function that takes the COM object representing a method as a parameter, and then pass on the function to the DoAction method. Your function will be called for each method defined in the file, and the cursor will be positioned at the start of the method before the callback occurs. In this case, I want to add a breakpoint, so I call the appropriate DTE method, passing the current method’s name to tell it where to place the breakpoint.

Here’s the entire code in the ForEachMethodInFile project – it basically recursively traverses code elements in the file, and invokes the callback when it runs into a method.

  1: Imports System
  2: Imports EnvDTE
  3: Imports EnvDTE80
  4: Imports System.Diagnostics
  5: 
  6: Public Module ForEachMethod
  7: 
  8:     Public Sub DoAction(ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
  9:         ProcessFile(action)
 10:     End Sub
 11: 
 12:     Function ProcessFile(ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
 13:         Dim selection As EnvDTE.TextSelection
 14:         Dim projectItem As ProjectItem
 15:         Dim fileCodeModel As FileCodeModel
 16:         Dim codeElement As CodeElement
 17:         Dim i As Integer
 18: 
 19:         Dim currentFunction As CodeFunction
 20: 
 21:         projectItem = DTE.ActiveDocument.ProjectItem
 22: 
 23:         fileCodeModel = projectItem.FileCodeModel
 24:         For i = 1 To fileCodeModel.CodeElements.Count
 25:             codeElement = fileCodeModel.CodeElements.Item(i)
 26:             ProcessCodeElement(codeElement, action)
 27:         Next
 28: 
 29:         ' Reformat the modified code
 30:         selection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection
 31:         selection.SelectAll()
 32:         selection.SmartFormat()
 33:     End Function
 34: 
 35:     Sub ProcessNamespace(ByVal namespaceElement As CodeNamespace, ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
 36:         Dim i As Integer
 37:         Dim codeElement As CodeElement
 38: 
 39:         For i = 1 To namespaceElement.Members.Count
 40:             codeElement = namespaceElement.Members.Item(i)
 41:             ProcessCodeElement(codeElement, action)
 42:         Next
 43:     End Sub
 44: 
 45:     Sub ProcessCodeElement(ByVal codeElement As CodeElement, ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
 46:         If codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementNamespace Then
 47:             ProcessNamespace(codeElement, action)
 48:         ElseIf codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass Then
 49:             ProcessType(codeElement, action)
 50:         ElseIf codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction Then
 51:             ProcessMethod(codeElement, action)
 52:         End If
 53:     End Sub
 54: 
 55:     Sub ProcessType(ByVal typeElement As CodeClass, ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
 56:         Dim i As Integer
 57:         Dim codeElement As CodeElement
 58: 
 59:         For i = 1 To typeElement.Members.Count
 60:             codeElement = typeElement.Members.Item(i)
 61:             If codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction Then
 62:                 ProcessMethod(codeElement, action)
 63:             ElseIf codeElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass Then
 64:                 ProcessType(codeElement, action)
 65:             End If
 66:         Next
 67:     End Sub
 68: 
 69:     Sub ProcessMethod(ByVal methodElement As CodeFunction, ByRef action As Action(Of CodeFunction))
 70:         Dim selection As EnvDTE.TextSelection
 71:         Dim editPoint As EnvDTE.EditPoint
 72:         Dim verifyPoint As EnvDTE.TextPoint
 73:         Dim endPointAbsCharOffset As Integer
 74:         Dim column As Integer
 75:         Dim methodRunNotifierSignature As String
 76:         Dim functionStartCode As String
 77:         Dim functionEndCode As String
 78:         Dim parameters As String
 79:         Dim parameter As EnvDTE80.CodeParameter2
 80:         Dim i As Integer
 81: 
 82:         If methodElement.MustImplement Then
 83:             Return
 84:         End If
 85: 
 86:         selection = DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection
 87:         editPoint = selection.ActivePoint.CreateEditPoint()
 88:         verifyPoint = selection.ActivePoint.CreateEditPoint()
 89: 
 90:         ' Move to start of method
 91:         editPoint.MoveToPoint(methodElement.GetStartPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartBody))
 92:         selection.MoveToPoint(editPoint)
 93:         verifyPoint.MoveToPoint(methodElement.GetStartPoint(vsCMPart.vsCMPartBody))
 94: 
 95:         action(methodElement)
 96: 
 97:     End Sub
 98: End Module
 99: 
100: