Threading problems

[garethhayter]

A few users have reported my app semi-hanging while performing a certain operation. What I mean by semi-hanging is that the app remains responsive to UI interaction, but an operation on another thread never seems to return.

This indicates a threading issue and it is extremely difficult to reproduce at will.

What would be great would be to allow the user (or my app internally) to grab a stacktrace of all threads or something that will allow me to narrow down where the problem is occurring - on which thread, and what is blocking.

I know that threading issues are notorious, but can you suggest any way for me to troubleshoot this. I'd love to put a big button for users experiencing this problem to press, which will send this useful info to me.

I know this is a very broad question, and not actually related to SmartAssembly, but I'd appreciate any pointers

Thanks,
Gareth.
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Gareth Hayter

[garethhayter]

This question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2724045/can-i-get-the-stack-traces-of-all-threads-in-my-c-app led me to look at the Managed Stack Explorer http://mse.codeplex.com/

The Managed Stack Explorer sounds perfect, but doesn't work with .Net 4.0.

So, still no solution. All I really need is to get the stack-traces of all running threads.
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Gareth Hayter

[Brian Donahue]

Hi Gareth,

You are welcome to use our internal support tool, Red Flag, to dump the stacks. It works in a similar way to MSE, except it doesn't automatically dump the stacks -- you have to do it from the "Actions" menu. But I have got .NET v4 support in it.
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Brian Donahue
Technical Support
Red Gate Software Ltd.
44 (0)870 160 0037 ext 8521
US and CAN 1-866-RED GATE ext 8521

[garethhayter]

Hi Brian

That's very kind of you. Thank-you very much. I'll give it a go and see what I can uncover.
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Gareth Hayter