Symbol server¶
Sleet can build a static HTTP symbol store from packages on your feed. Add the Sleet symbol server URL to Visual Studio or another debugger to load PDB files for package dependencies.
Enable symbols¶
Symbols are disabled on new feeds unless you enable them during initialization:
For an existing feed, set the feed setting and recreate the feed:
The feed-settings command updates sleet.settings.json, but it doesn't add the symbol server to index.json. recreate downloads the packages, destroys the feed files, initializes the feed again with the current settings, and pushes the packages back. After that, index.json lists the symbol server and packages that were already on the feed are indexed.
For a local feed whose baseURI is different from path, recreate doesn't work. Follow rebuild a local feed without recreate and run init --with-symbols.
Disable symbols¶
To stop indexing symbols for future pushes, set the feed setting to false:
This setting change does not delete existing symbol files or remove the symbol server entry from index.json by itself. Run sleet recreate after disabling symbols if you want the feed rebuilt without the symbol server files and service-index entries.
Package files Sleet indexes¶
Sleet indexes .dll files and matching .pdb files from .nupkg and .symbols.nupkg files. It does not index .exe or XML documentation files. It does not support .snupkg symbol packages.
You can provide symbols in either of these ways:
- Include PDB files next to the DLL files inside the main
.nupkg. - Push a legacy
.symbols.nupkgpackage with the same package id and version.
To create a legacy .symbols.nupkg with the .NET SDK, use:
Microsoft documents IncludeSymbols and SymbolPackageFormat in Creating symbol packages. The newer .snupkg format is recommended for NuGet.org, but Sleet's symbol server reads only .symbols.nupkg files and PDBs inside normal .nupkg files.
Symbol packages on the feed¶
When symbols are enabled, .symbols.nupkg files are stored under the feed's symbols/packages/ area. NuGet restore still uses only the regular .nupkg from the package feed. The symbol package is for the debugger.
sleet download includes both regular packages and .symbols.nupkg files. sleet recreate also downloads symbol packages and reindexes them when symbols are enabled.
Symbol server URL and layout¶
The symbol server URL is the feed root plus symbols/. If your NuGet source is:
Use this symbol URL:
The same URL appears in index.json with this resource type:
Sleet writes symbol files with this layout:
For example:
For DLL files, the hash is built from the PE timestamp and image size. For portable PDBs, Sleet reads the CodeView debug entry from the matching assembly and uses the PDB GUID plus ffffffff. For Windows PDBs, it uses the PDB GUID plus the PDB age.
Configure Visual Studio¶
In Visual Studio, open Tools > Options > Debugging > Symbols, add the Sleet symbols/ URL, enable it, and choose a local symbol cache. See Microsoft's current guide to configure symbol locations and loading options.
To step into package code, you may also need to disable Just My Code. See Microsoft's guide to Just My Code. If your packages include Source Link information, Visual Studio can use the PDB to find source files.
Private feeds¶
The debugger must be able to reach the symbol URL. Authentication support depends on the debugger and symbol-loading path, so test private feeds with the debugger you plan to use.