Find out more about Portable PDB

[ctaggart]

Miguel de Icaza blogged a couple of days ago bout new new Portable Program Database (PPDB) files format.

Portable PDB v0.1: Format Specification Draft
https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/blob/master/docs/specs/PortablePdb-Metadata.md

Code got merged to Roslyn master 10 days ago:
dotnet/roslyn#3891

[ctaggart]

Mono 4.2.0 was released with support for the PPDB format which is version 0.1.
http://www.mono-project.com/docs/about-mono/releases/4.2.0/

[ctaggart]

There is related code in Roslyn:
https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn/tree/master/src/Debugging/Microsoft.DiaSymReader.PortablePdb

[ctaggart]

The related code above exposes a portable pdb to the existing Windows DiaSymReader for compatibility with existing Windows APIs.

[ctaggart]

Great progress today at the Microsoft MVP Summit and a plan is in place for the cross platform portable pdb format. Portable pdb is the future for .NET.
aspnet/Universe#131 (comment)

[ctaggart]

I proposed that F# switch to the portable pdb format. dotnet/fsharp#718

[ctaggart]

The discussion for adding .pdb files to the NuGet packages in Roslyn is dotnet/roslyn#3. They will be the trend setter.

[ctaggart]

It is easy to read in the portable pdb format using System.Reflection.Metadata.
https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Reflection.Metadata

open System.Reflection.Metadata
open System.Runtime.InteropServices
open System.IO
open Microsoft.FSharp.NativeInterop

#nowarn "9"

let printfn format = Printf.ksprintf System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine format

[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv = 
    let f = @"C:\cs\roslyn\Binaries\Obj\PdbUtilities\Release\Roslyn.Test.PdbUtilities.pdb"
    let bytes = File.ReadAllBytes f
    let pBytes = GCHandle.Alloc(bytes, GCHandleType.Pinned)
    let mr = MetadataReader(pBytes.AddrOfPinnedObject() |> NativePtr.ofNativeInt, bytes.Length)
    for dh in mr.Documents do
        let d = mr.GetDocument dh
        let name = mr.GetString d.Name
        let language = mr.GetGuid d.Language
        let hashAlgorithm = mr.GetGuid d.HashAlgorithm
        let hash = mr.GetBlobBytes d.Hash

        // Hex.fs from https://github.com/ctaggart/SourceLink/blob/master/SourceLink/Hex.fs
        printfn "%s %s" (Hex.encode hash) name
    pBytes.Free() // reminder for later
    0 

The SHA1 for StringUtilities does indeed match:

[ctaggart]

Portable PDB support is coming in #121.