How to write a sample code that will crash and produce dump file?

Question

I started learned windbg and I found this good post How to use WinDbg to analyze the crash dump for VC++ application?

Now I want to follow the instructions and do it

Answer 1

This will produce a null pointer dereference exception: *((int*) 0) = 0;

This will produce integer division by zero: int a = 0; int b = 5 / a;

EDIT: Post-Mortem Debugging Your Application with Minidumps and Visual Studio .NET contains a lot of sample code and theory on using minidumps.

Answer 2

Most of the times you will find all apps dump in C:\windows\minidumps.

To generate a dump file you could use a simple solution:

1. Open windbg
2. File->Open Executable
3. You run the app that will crash
4. A breakpoint will trigger
5. Now you can use .dump in windbg to create a dmp file

or

1. Run the app and wait to crash
2. Open windbg and attach to process (File->Attach to process)
3. run .dump

This way you will be able to analyze that crash anytime :)

Answer 3

Auto minidump generation is done by the post-mortem debugger, so you need to start there. Most importantly though, it's done by a debugger. So if you just want to generate a minidump, you can use your typical debugger (probably visual studio or windbg). Even task manager can create dump files.

The registry setting which specifies the post-mortem debugger is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug

Look at the Debugger string, and you will be on your way to finding your minidumps.