qt creator debug slow

Question

I'm running Qt Creator 2.3.0, based on Qt 4.7.4, on Windows 7 64-bit. When I run the app from Qt Creator (ctrl+r), everything works great. However, when I debug (F5), executing each line takes forever - as in sometimes 2 minutes to execute a single line of code.

I noticed in the Debugger Log window this line: Debugger: C:\Program Files (x86)\Debugging Tools For Windows (x86)\cdb.exe. I thought since I'm running Windows 7 x64, I should be using the 64-bit debugger. So, I downloaded and installed the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 as a friend suggested.

Now I see that in Tools..Options..Tool Chains, I have a number of Auto-detected tools. If I select any of the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows - x86, x64, ia64, or any of the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler 9.0 - x86, amd64, x64, ia64 - the Debugger is set to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Debugging Tools For Windows (x86)\cdb.exe", and is disabled so I can't change it.

How do I convince Qt Creator to use the 64-bit version of cdb? Is that related to my major problem, the super-slow debugging?

Dropper

Answer 1

After installing Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, I upgraded to Qt Creator 2.4. Now when I debug, it started using x64 cdb! The first couple times were still very slow for some reason. However, when I tried to time it, it's now working at a reasonable speed. Even after re-starting Qt Creator or even rebooting, debugging is now running at a reasonable speed: maybe 2-3 seconds to bring up my main form the first time, and 1 second thereafter. Used to take anywhere from a minute to 20 minutes.

So it's working now! Hope this is helpful to someone.

Dropper

probably first time is longer because of loading debugging symbols. I gues later they're cached and don't need to be resolved again – Oppress

makes sense - I assumed it's caching something and that's the difference. I can wait 3 seconds. It was the 20 minutes that made debugging impossible. I still don't understand what was causing the extreme slowness before, but I'm sure thankful it's solved! – Dropper

Answer 2

I'm using qt-creator 2.5.2, lib 4.8.3 msvc2010, under windows7-64bit, also is too slow,
even after I had download the debug symbols as cache.

but it's solved now, refer: How to configure CDB in Qt Creator?

I clone one config, change from default detect: C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x64)\cdb.exe

to new install: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x86\cdb.exe

Jennette

Answer 3

If others are still facing the issue even after settings symbols to be cached, restarting QT Creator or rebooting the system, please consider downloading the Debugging Tools from another versions of the Windows SDK. This worked for me as posted at this answer.

Charity

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