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Performance Validator Help

 

The File Locations tab allows you to specify which directories Performance Validator should look in for source code files, whether that's your own or third party code.

 

The default settings are shown below:

 

interactiveRead on, or click on a setting in the picture below to find out more:

 

file-location-settings

 

 

File locations

 

Sometimes the information Performance Validator has access to consists of the file name, but not the directory.

 

When this happens Performance Validator scans a set of directories that it knows about in order to find the file.

 

The options below allow you to specify those directories that should be searched for source files, PDB files and MAP files.

 

If a file can't be found, you'll get prompted for a location, but you can control this below as well.

 

 

Setting directories for a path type

 

There are four path types, and a separate list of directories to scan for each one.

 

Path Type instructionStep select the type of file with which you want to modify the list directory

 

file-location-path-type

 

note You don't have to specify any directories if you don't want to, or if you just don't have them. Nor do you have to give directories for all the path types.

 

 

Prompting for file locations

 

Whenever a file still cannot be found, then the default action is for a dialog to ask you where it is.

 

To avoid frequent user interruption, it is recommended that the directories for source code files (yours and third party) are specified, enabling Performance Validator to automatically load source code for browsing.

 

If however, you don't want to be prompted for locations, you can disable that too.

 

Ask for location of file... instructionStep untick to stop prompting for file locations

 

Even when prompting is switched on, it can still happen that the line in question is invalid anyway, e.g. line number 0 or -1.

 

The default is not to prompt for invalid lines, but if you want to know when that happens, just switch that behaviour off.

 

Don't ask for location of file if line number is not valid... instructionStep untick to be prompted for invalid lines anyway

 

 

PDB (program database) file paths

 

Normally PDB search paths are automatically generated, based on the same directories that .exe and .dll files are found in:

 

Automatically detect PDB paths instructionStep automatically detect PDB locations (the default)

 

However, it is recommended that you specify paths for PDB (program database) files, especially if your build environment dictates that PDB files are kept in different directories to their binaries.

 

If you don't automatically generate PDB paths and you don't specify any paths for PDBs, the search path will be defined as the current directory plus any paths found in the following environment variables:

 

_NT_SYMBOL_PATH

_NT_ALTERNATE_SYMBOL_PATH

SYSTEMROOT

 

 

MAP file paths

 

It's recommended that you specify paths for Map files if your build environment means they are kept in different directories to their binaries.

 

If you don't specify any paths for Map files, then search paths are automatically generated, based on the same directories that .exe and .dll files are found in.

 

 

Manually adding path type directories

 

Once you have chosen your path type you can modify the list of files for each path type in the following ways:

 

Add instructionStep appends a row to the directory list instructionStep enter the directory path

 

Edit a directory path by double clicking the entry. The usual controls apply for removing list items:

 

Remove instructionStep removes selected items from the list

 

Remove all instructionStep clears the list

 

Remove invalid instructionStep removes all items that are not valid directories from the list

 
 

Alternatively, press b_del to delete selected items, and b_ctrl + b_a to select all items in the list first.

 

 

Scanning for directories to add

 

The File Scan... button displays the File Search dialog to provide three ways of specifying the files to scan.

 

 file-search-dialog

 

Visual Studio Search instructionStep choose the version of Visual Studio instructionStep OK instructionStep starts a scan for directories related to that version of Visual Studio

 

Directory Search instructionStep Browse... displays a directory browser instructionStep navigate to a location you want to scan within instructionStep OK instructionStep starts a scan for directories

 

File System Search instructionStep OK instructionStep starts a scan of all drives for directories containing files

 

All options will bring up a File Scan dialog indicating number of relevant directories found, and giving you a chance to Stop or Cancel the scan at any time:

 

 

file-scan-dialog

 

Once the scan is complete you'll see the File Paths dialog showing you the scan results:

 

file-paths-dialog

 

You can modify the list of resulting directories by adding, removing or editing, exactly as for the path type list above.

 

Once you're happy with the scan results, either append or replace the path type directories with the scan results.

 

Add To List instructionStep adds the scan results list to the path type directories and closes the File Paths dialog
 

Replace List instructionStep replaces the path type directories with the scan results
 

Cancel instructionStep discard the scan results and close the dialog
 

 

Exporting and Importing

 

Since the list of path types and their file locations can be quite complicated to set up and optimise, you can export the settings to a file and import them again later. This is useful when switching between different target applications.

 

Export... instructionStep choose or enter a filename instructionStep Save instructionStep outputs all the path types and their file locations to the file

 

Import... instructionStep navigate to an existing *.pvxfl file instructionStep Open instructionStep loads the hooking rule and the list of modules

 

note The exported file can be used with the -fileLocations command line option.

 

 

Export file format

 

The file format is plain text with one folder listed per line. Sections are denoted by a line containing [Files] (for source code files), [Third] (for third party source code files), [PDB] etc.

 

Example:

 

[Files]

c:\work\project1\

[Third]

d:\VisualStudio\VC98\Include

[PDB]

c:\work\project3\debug

c:\work\project3\release

[MAP]

c:\work\project3\debug

c:\work\project3\release

 

 

Checking directory scanning order

 

To see the order in which the DbgHelp.dll process checks directories to find symbols, see the diagnostic tab, showing DbgHelp debug in the drop-down.

 

 

Reset All - Resets all global settings, not just those on the current page.

 

 

Reset - Resets the settings on the current page.