ReSharper
 
2022.1
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Generate PDB files

Last modified: 21 July 2022

ReSharper provides a command to generate a PDB file (together with the source files) for any .NET assembly.

tip

You can also automatically load decompiled symbols with ReSharper decompiler when debugging compiled code in Visual Studio.

When generating symbol files, ReSharper creates the directory structure identical to the Visual Studio symbol cache. Therefore, if you set the Visual Studio symbol cache directory as the output folder, all generated symbols will be automatically available to the Visual Studio debugger. You can get or set the cache directory in Visual Studio Options: Debugging | Symbols | Cache symbols in this directory.

tip

Usage examples of PDB files are beyond the scope of this topic. To learn more about PDB files, see this John Robbins' post.

Generate PDB file for an assembly

  1. Select the desired assemblies in the Assembly Explorer window.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Click Generate PDB Themed icon sources from symbol files screen gray on the toolbar of the Assembly Explorer.

    • Right-click the selection and choose Generate PDB in the context menu.

    • In the Process Explorer window, right-click any .NET process and choose Load Symbols with ReSharper Decompiler. Generation will start immediately to the symbol cache directory specified in Visual Studio options (Tools | Options | Debugging | Symbols). If no directory is specified, ReSharper will suggest to automatically add %LOCALAPPDATA%\Temp\SymbolCache as the cache directory.

  3. In the PDB Generation dialog that opens, specify the destination folder. Optionally, you can select some more assemblies in the reference hierarchy. If the Visual Studio symbol cache is specified in the options (Tools | Options | Debugging | Symbols | Cache symbols in this directory), you can choose it with the radio button

    PDB Generation dialog

  4. Click Generate. PDB and source files for the selected assemblies are created in the specified destination folder.

    You can watch the progress of generating PDB in the Project/PDB Generation Status window.

tip

If at any point you would like to clear the decompilation cache, remove the data in %LOCALAPPDATA%\JetBrains\Shared\vAny\DecompilerCache.

See also

Procedures

Reference