Triage multiple dumps¶
When you have a folder of dumps, for example from a fleet or a crash-reporting drop, start by listing them and then analyze them as a batch to find the common thread.
List what is there¶
This calls list_windbg_dumps, which finds dump
files and reports their sizes. To include subfolders:
With no directory given, the server falls back to the local crash dump location configured in Windows (see below).
Capture crashes automatically¶
To collect dumps without a debugger attached, turn on Windows Error Reporting (WER) local dumps.
Create this registry key and point DumpFolder at a directory:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps
DumpFolder (REG_EXPAND_SZ) e.g. C:\dumps
DumpType (REG_DWORD) 2 = full dump, 1 = mini dump
Crashing user-mode processes then drop a .dmp into that folder. The server reads DumpFolder
when you call list_windbg_dumps without a directory, falling back to %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps
if the key is not set. For the per-application form and all options, see Microsoft's
Collecting user-mode dumps
guide.
Analyze and compare¶
Let the model open each dump in turn (the crash dump flow) and summarize:
For every dump under C:\dumps\incident-42, show the top stack frame and tell me
which ones share the same crash signature
The model opens each dump with open_windbg_dump,
collects the signal it needs, and compares across them. Ask it to close sessions as it goes
so you do not accumulate cdb.exe processes:
Keep the batch focused
Full !analyze -v on every dump in a large folder is slow. Ask for just the crash type
and top frame first, then deep-dive only the dumps that look interesting.
Related¶
- Analyze a crash dump - the per-dump workflow.
- Tools reference -
list_windbg_dumpsparameters.