Hi,

I noticed that some of my projects have several pdb files in them, but
not all the projects. I searched google and found that they seem to be
referenced as Palm Data Base, but was not able to find if they are
created by VB or if they are needed. Are they similar to the obj files
and if used by VB will the be created each time?

Thanks in advance for any information,
Norm

PDB = Program Data Base

They are created I think when you choose to compile with debugging
information.

A given extension is not exclusive to any particular application or purpose,
but some are so well known to be associated with a given app that it'd be
plain stupid to use that extension for something else. So while Palm Data
Base may be the common use of the extension, it really doesn't mean
anything.  I could have my apps create files with a .doc or .docx extension
if I wanted, and the file could be completely proprietary. Not really a good
idea though because there'd be some user trying to open the file with MS
Word or other application and wonder why it won't open.

I did a search on my computer to find .pdb files and saw that they are of
type "Intermediate file".  Reviewing the folders where these files are
located, they seem to mostly be in Release and Debug folders of VC98
projects, meaning they are probably created during compilation of those
projects (but a few existed in Lib folders of VC98 itself).

But I'm not familiar with VB creating them. VB will create .exp, .obj, and
..lib files during compilation of some projects.  These will normally get
deleted when compilation is completed or when you close VB, but not always.
These particular files are also "intermediate files" and are safe to delete
if they do get left behind. You can take that for whatever you want.  <g> I
don't think I'd just start deleting them all though thinking they were
unnecessary. If I was really bored, I might move them to a flash drive and
then remove the flash drive (just to make sure there's NO WAY they could be
found). Try recompiling and see if they get re-created or if you have any
problems with your VB projects. If you do have any problems, you can simply
plug the flash drive in and copy them back to their original location.  IOW,
play around.  Just be sure to take some precautions so that you don't
royally hose things.

Yes, VB does create them but only if you enable "Create Symbolic Debug Info"
option. They are safe to delete. I noticed that the EXE size doesn't change
much when I enable this option. Using a Hex editor shows that the PDB file
name(without path) is stored in EXE when using this option.

Here is more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Program_database

You may also want to check the external links at the article above for more
information.

Nobody presented the following explanation :
Show quoteHide quoteThanks for the information, it pointed me in the right direction. :D

I had forgotten that I had tried using the DbgWProc.dll in a couple of
my projects. I am not sure I was using it right, as I still had VB
shutdown on me while testing. Since I have not done any compiling with
a debugging options I am guessin this is where the files came from. I
will delete them and see what happens, but am almost sure the program
will run OK. If not I do have copies of each folder and can replace the
files.

Thanks,
Norm

Nobody is totally correct. You can delete them - or you can leave
them, they aren't doing any harm.

It's useful to keep PDB files for release builds of your code. You can
use them to debug your code with free debuggers like WinDBG. This can
be useful, e.g. if VB6 is not installed on the machine on which you
wish to debug

Worse.  Word might save the file converting what little text it can
see ot something very different.

Tony

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