visual-studio-2013gdbreverse-debugging

Can I get reverse debugging functionality for Visual Studio 2013 Professional?


I know that GDB comes with reverse debugging, but is there a way I can get this functionality in Visual Studio 2013 Pro?


Solution

  • Visual Studio (2010, 2012, 2013 Ultimate only) does have a feature that allows you to step backwards from a breakpoint or exception (Intellitrace), and the values in the Locals and Autos panes (as well as DataTips that appear on a hover over a statement) will the show the state at that (previous) point. Unfortunately, Intellitrace is not available for 2013 Professional. In addition, it has only limited support for F# and does not support C++ or JavaScript.

    Right now, (since no 3rd party extensions exist that I’m aware of) your best option is looking at the call stack to examine the source code that executed prior to the breakpoint or exception. BTW you can “drag” the debug point up and down in the debug gutter of the VS source window but this will only set the point of next execution (any previous state information is not displayed).

    Since GDB does have this feature you could try something like VisualGDB or WinGDB, but I'm not sure how well reverse debugging is supported in either of these two or their stability once introduced into the most recent VS IDE.