Table of Contents

How to debug CoreCLR in 2024 with Visual Studio 2022

This instruction covers questions:

  • How to build current version of .NET runtime (.net 10)
  • How to create C# application with .net.
  • How to debug CoreCLR with Visual Studio 2022

Current main branch contains .net10.0 version.

Instruction is based on the debugging-runtime note.

1. Clone repository

git clone https://github.com/dotnet/runtime

2. Build project

./build.cmd

This command will build all components of the project and create a new directory named artifacts at the root level. This directory will contain the compiled DLLs, EXE files, and other runtime files necessary for the application.

 /c/proj/dotnet/runtime (main)
$ ls -la artifacts/
total 308
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 03:11 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:47 ../
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 03:20 bin/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:47 log/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:47 mibc/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 03:08 obj/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:57 packages/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 03:11 tests/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:47 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x 1 Ivan 197121 0 Oct  6 02:56 toolset/

3. Create a HelloWorld application using the .NET 10.0 runtime.

Create directory src/samples/HelloWorld with project files

mkdir src/samples/HelloWorld

HelloWorld.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>$(NetCoreAppCurrent)</TargetFramework>
    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>true</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <TreatWarningsAsErrors>false</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Program.cs

using System;

Console.WriteLine("Hello world");
Console.ReadLine();

If open project HelloWorld.csproj in Visual Studio it should have a reference to the .net core 10

+HelloWorld
+-Dependencies
 +-Frameworks
  +-Microsoft.NETCore

In Properties Microsoft.NETCore will have Path: ...\runtime\artifacts\bin\microsoft.netcore.app.ref

4. Build HelloWorlds application

After the applicaiton is built, executables will appear in directory: ...\artifacts\bin\HelloWorld\Debug\net10.0

5. Start Visual Studio project with CoreCLR

./build.cmd -vs coreclr.sln

6. Right-click the INSTALL project and choose Set as StartUp Project.

7. Bring up the properties page for the INSTALL project.

8. Select Configuration Properties -> Debugging from the left side tree control.

Set .NET Core runtime host path

Command=$(SolutionDir)\..\..\..\..\bin\coreclr\windows.$(Platform).$(Configuration)\corerun.exe

9. Set application to debug

Command Arguments=C:\proj\dotnet\runtime\artifacts\bin\HelloWorld\Debug\net10.0\HelloWorld.dll

10. Set core libraries path

Environment=CORE_LIBRARIES=$(SolutionDir)\..\..\..\..\bin\runtime\net10.0-windows-$(Configuration)-$(Platform)

11. Right-click the INSTALL project and choose Build. This will load necessary information from CMake to Visual Studio.

12 Re-build CRL

./build.cmd +clr

13. Press F11 to start debugging at wmain in corerun, or set a breakpoint in source and press F5 to run to it. As an example, set a breakpoint for the EEStartup() function in ceemain.cpp to break into CoreCLR startup.

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