Program Database (PDB) files (with file name extension
pdb) are included in ZIP Archive
distributions (but not MSI distributions) of MySQL. These
files provide information for debugging your MySQL
installation in the event of a problem.
The PDB file contains more detailed information about
mysqld and other tools that enables more
detailed trace and dump files to be created. You can use these
with WinDbg or Visual Studio to debug
mysqld.
The older Dr. Watson debugging tool was removed in Microsoft Vista, with WinDbg being a common alternative.
For more information on PDB files, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 121366. For more information on the debugging options available, see Debugging Tools for Windows.
To use WinDbg, either install the full Windows Driver Kit (WDK) or install the standalone version.
The .exe and .pbd
files must be an exact match (both version number and MySQL
server edition) or WinDBG will complain while attempting to
load the symbols.
To generate a minidump mysqld.dmp,
enable the core-file option
under the [mysqld] section in my.ini.
Restart the MySQL server after making these changes.
Create a directory to store the generated files, such as
c:\symbols
Determine the path to your windbg.exe
executable using the Find GUI or from the command line,
for example: dir /s /b windbg.exe -- a
common default is C:\Program Files\Debugging
Tools for Windows (x64)\windbg.exe
Launch windbg.exe giving it the paths
to mysqld-debug.exe,
mysqld.pdb,
mysqld.dmp, and the source code.
Alternatively, pass in each path from the WinDbg GUI. For
example:
windbg.exe -i "C:\mysql-5.6.36-winx64\bin\"^
-z "C:\mysql-5.6.36-winx64\data\mysqld.dmp"^
-srcpath "E:\ade\mysql_archives\5.6\5.6.36\mysql-5.6.36"^
-y "C:\mysql-5.6.36-winx64\bin;SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols"^
-v -n -c "!analyze -vvvvv"
The ^ character and newline are
removed by the Windows command line processor, so be
sure the spaces remain intact.