BUG: Debugger Cannot Safely Change Current Location

• The integrated debugger included with: - Microsoft Visual C++, 32-bit Professional Edition, version 5.0 on the

       following platform:
       - Alpha
  

SYMPTOMS

The debugger cannot safely change the current location of a stopped program (for example, using the Set-Next-Statement function) from inside a catch handler to the body of the program.

CAUSE

This is related to the difference between Intel and Alpha exception handling. The catch handler on the Alpha architecture is effectively a separate function that allows clean handling of exceptions that are raised within the exception handler. Any change of the current location from the handler to the body of the program would bypass the handler epilogue and result in incorrect values in the registers, and an incorrect stack frame.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this bug and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.