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How to: Specify Symbol File Locations from the Command Line

To display symbol information such as function names and line numbers, the VSPerfReport.exe command-line tool requires access to the symbol (.PDB) files of the profiled components and the Window system files. Symbol files are created a component is compiled. VSPerfReport automatically searches the following locations for symbol files:

  • Paths specified in the VSPerfReport /SymbolPath option or in the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable.

  • The exact local path where a component was compiled.

  • The directory that contains the profiling data (.vsp or .vsps) file.

Microsoft provides the PDB files for many of its products online in a symbol server. VSPerfReport knows how to use the online symbol server to automatically look up symbol information and save the files to a local store. This does require that the computer you are using for reporting is connected to the Internet.

You can specify the ___location of symbol files and the Microsoft symbol server store in two ways:

  • Set the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable.

  • Add the /SymbolPath option to the VSPerfReport command line.

You can also use both of the above methods.

Note

If the computer has an installation of the Visual Studio IDE, a ___location for the Windows symbol files probably has been specified already. For more information, see How to: Reference Windows Symbol Information. You will still need to configure VSPerfReport to use the ___location and server as described below.

Specifying Windows Symbol Files

To configure the use of the Windows Symbol Server

  1. If necessary, create a directory to store the symbol files locally.

  2. Use the following syntax to set the _NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable or the VSPerfReport /SymbolPath option:**srv*<local store>*http://msdl.microsoft.com/downloads/symbols**where <local store> is the path to local directory that you created.

Specifying Component Symbol Files

If the PDB files for the components that you want to profile are not in their original ___location or in the folder containing the profililng data file, specify the locations by adding one or more paths to _NT_SYMBOL_PATH or to the /SymbolPath option. Separate paths with semi-colons.

Example

The following command-line statement sets the __NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable to the Windows symbol server and the local directory to C:\Symbols. The VSPerfReport command line adds the C:\Projects\Symbols directory to the search path.

set _NT_SYMBOL_PATH=srv*C:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/downloads/symbols

VSPerfReport MyApp.exe /SymbolPath:C:\Projects\Symbols /summary:all