Problem with CLRProfiler

Question

I am trying to use Microsoft's CLRProfiler to profile my fairly large app, and it is crashing whenever it tries to write (or read) a log file. Ironically, the exact bug is documented on the MS 'Feedback' site as being not reproducible, and seems never to have been fixed. I am getting a NullReferenceException at:

CLRProfiler.ReadNewLog.ReadFile(Int64 startFileOffset, Int64 endFileOffset, ReadLogResult readLogResult)
at CLRProfiler.MainForm.checkProcessTimer_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.OnTick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Timer.TimerNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

Does anyone have any ideas how I could go about either getting help or, ideally getting the damn thing to run properly? Plaintive calls for help on MSDN have been ignored... Thanks!

Answer 1

The CLR Profiler is quite unstable, I also experienced many crashes with it.

One hint that I have heard at PDC is to use it only as a snapshot tool: don't collect the mem usage information during the run of the application, but stop the app at a point where you know you have the mem problem already, and make a mem snapshot.

This way it is much more stable, and usually from the reference graph you anyway can find out what causes the leak.

Answer 2

I suspect that is a dead avenue. Perhaps try jetBrains dotTRACE; you can get a free 10 day trial to see if it is suitable.

Answer 3

We faced a similar problem while debugging a crashing mammoth on a remote Citrix Server which CLRProfiler failed to analyze.

We were able to find the problem using WinDbg

Additionally this can also help CorDbg