When using debug builds, in order to ensure that the debugger can find all the relevant symbolic information, the symbol files need to be located as follows:
| OS | Debugger | Location for .pdb file | Location for .dbg file |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 95 Windows 98 | Visual C++® | same directory as binary | same directory as binary |
| Windows NT Windows 2000 | Visual C++ | same directory as binary | %SystemRoot%\symbols\<binary ext>\ |
| Windows NT Windows 2000 | NTSD/KD | %SystemRoot%\symbols\<binary ext>\ | %SystemRoot%\symbols\<binary ext>\ |
Note When debugging with Microsoft® Visual C++® development system on Windows NT/Windows 2000, do not use the WIN32API splitsym development tool. WIN32API splitsym copies private symbolic information from the <binary>.dbg file into the symbol directory under the binary extension (for example, %SystemRoot%\symbols\dll\ ), then deletes the original file from the binary directory. Visual C++ uses relies on finding private symbolic information (<binary>.dbg) file in the same directory as the binary itself, so for debug builds, it is necessary to only copy the private symbolic information and not to delete it. This is only an issue when using Visual C++ with Windows NT/Windows 2000. Consult Visual C++ documentation and Windows NT/Windows 2000 DDK documentation for further debugging information.