Please note that this is the 3rd Article under the Basic Windows Debugging. Previous Articles are:
While using WinDBG you can use three different types of Commands.
- Regular Commands
- Meta Commands which start with Dot Commands
- Extension Commands
Let’s understand more about these Commands Types as the understanding of this is important while moving further with the commands:
Regular Commands:
These are the inbuilt commands which are executed by the Debugger.
Examples:
~ | List the Threads |
| | List the status of Process being Debugged |
k | Display the Call Stacks |
Meta Commands which start with Dot Commands:
These commands generally control the behavior of the Debugger. They generally start with (.).
Examples:
.cls | Command Clears the WinDBG Screen |
.symfix | The command automatically sets the symbol path to point to the Microsoft symbol store |
Extension Commands:
These are the commands used by the Debugger Extension, which can be either developed by Microsoft or even by 3rd Party Developers to ease their Debugging Process.
Example:
One of the Best Examples for this is !analyze which is an Extension command. One another Example is !Mex which is a Debugger Extension and we will be learning how to use this in Future Articles.
