How to generate MSVC solution with debugging information using scons? - c++

Question

I'm writing scons script for a c++ project that is intended to be cross-platform. In windows, the script generates msvc solution. The script snippet is as follows:
ENV={'PATH':os.environ['PATH']}
if build_type=='Release':
CCFLAGS=['/Ox','/EHsc','/DNDEBUG','/W3']
else:
CCFLAGS=['/Zi','/EHsc','/W3']
ENV['TMP']=os.environ['TMP']
if os_architecture=='32bit':
arc='x86'
else:
arc='amd64'
env=Environment(CCFLAGS=CCFLAGS,CPPPATH=include_path,LIBPATH=lib_path,RPATH=lib_path,LIBS=libs,ENV=ENV,MSVS_ARCH=arc,TARGET_ARCH=arc)
In debug mode the solution file is supposed to contain debugging information. However when I debug code in debug mode, I get "cannot find debugging information or debugging information mismatch" warning. Cannot figure out why. There is one ".pdb" file generated.

Answer 1

The Zi parameter will tell VS to create a pdb's during the compile time phase, however, you still need to specify the link-time pdb generation (yeah, its quite redundant, but there is probably some reason for the ultra fine-grained control). If the PDB your seeing is named vc###.pdb (where ### is your vc compiler version) then that is the compile-time pdb for your obj files, -not- your debuggable link-time pdb for your actual dll.
Anywho, I added the following line to scons and now I have a debuggable proper .pdb:
# Produce one .PDB file per .OBJ when compiling, then merge them when linking.
# Doing this enables parallel builds to work properly (the -j parameter).
# See: http://www.scons.org/doc/HTML/scons-man.html section CCPDBFLAGS
#
env['CCPDBFLAGS'] = '/Zi /Fd${TARGET}.pdb'
Which I got from the following very very helpful sample SConscript
http://www.scons.org/wiki/MsvcIncrementalLinking