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Breakpoints and Tracepoints

Breakpoints tell the debugger that an application should break, pause execution, at a certain point. When a break occurs, your program and the debugger are said to be in break mode. For more information, see Breaking Execution.

Tracepoints are a new debugger feature in Visual Studio. A tracepoint is a breakpoint with a custom action associated with it. When a tracepoint is hit, the debugger performs the specified tracepoint action instead of, or in addition to, breaking program execution.

One common use for tracepoints is printing a message when your program reaches a certain point. You can use tracepoints for many of the same purposes for which you would use Trace, but without the need to modify your code. Another difference is that tracepoints work only when you are running under the debugger. For more information, see How to: Specify a Tracepoint/Breakpoint Action.

For further information, see the following topics:

Breakpoints Overview

How to: Set a Simple Breakpoint

How to: Set an Address Breakpoint

How to: Set a Function Breakpoint

How to: Set a Breakpoint on a Function Call from the Call Stack Window

How to: Set a Data Breakpoint (Native Only)

How to: Delete a Breakpoint

How to: Enable or Disable a Breakpoint

How to: Disable All Breakpoints

How to: Delete All Breakpoints

How to: Edit a Breakpoint Location

How to: Specify a Breakpoint Condition

How to: Specify a Hit Count

How to: Specify a Breakpoint Filter

How to: Specify a Tracepoint/Breakpoint Action

How to: Use the Breakpoints Window

Breakpoint Failure

How to: Set Breakpoints in Script

See Also

Concepts

Debugger Security

Debugging Basics: Breakpoints