Is it possible to debug a compiled assembly?

Question

I am looking for a way to debug compiled assemblies from Visual Studio.

Is it possible? Maybe some reflector add-on is being used?

I am not looking for a way to decompile / recompile and then debug.

Answer 1

If you don’t have PDB files to build, try using the .NET Reflector Pro , which was released a few days ago. It can decompile the code on the fly in Visual Studio, and then skip it as if you were debugging your own source code ( it doesn’t requires decompilation, and then recompile again ). This is a paid version of Visual Studio addin, but comes with a 14-day trial, after which it goes back to the free version of Reflector.

Answer 2

Yes. You can do this to disable the "Only my code" function (Tools → Options → Debugging) and then load the PDB for the DLL. After that, you can enter the DLL without any problems.

Answer 3

Of course there are no problems. Until you get the .pdb file. Debugging experience is not so rich, you often can’t check local variables, and one-step operations are odd.

Answer 4

You can connect to a running process using Debug -> Attach to Process. As long as you have a copy of the source code with .pdb in Visual Studio, you can debug normally.