Debugging the PortableApps.com Launcher

To debug the PortableApps.com Launcher, you will need the normal prerequisites for working with the PortableApps.com Launcher. See Installing the PortableApps.com Launcher for details on that process.

Once you have a compile environment set up for the PortableApps.com Launcher, you can recompile it with debugging flags turned on. All debug flags go in the Debug.nsh file. This file should contain debug flags as listed below, like this:

!define DEBUG_ALL

When you compile the Launcher with the Generator, it will find this file and turn on debugging.

Remember to remove the debug file when doing release builds, or else people will end up with a build with debugging enabled, which is unlikely to be what you wanted.

Debug messages will be output to the screen in message boxes and to a file Data\debug.log in your package unless otherwise specified by DEBUG_OUTPUT below.

Debug.nsh

All modifications to the PortableApps.com Launcher involving debugging go in a file Debug.nsh in the App\AppInfo\Launcher directory of a package.

Note: I am considering relocating this to App\AppInfo\Launcher\Debug.nsh before the release of 2.1. In a later release I plan on integrating it into the user interface of a utility which will do all that the Generator does and more, and then where it is won’t matter so much.

Changed in version 2.1: previously this file was Other\Source\PortableApps.comLauncherDebug.nsh. The Generator will move this file to the new location if it exists.

Debug flags

Here is a list of the debug flags available. See above for how to enable them.

DEBUG_ALL

Debug (almost) everything. For the sake of verbosity, the “About to execute segment” and “Finished executing segment” debug messages are not shown unless DEBUG_SEGWRAP is turned on.

This is equivalent to DEBUG_GLOBAL and all DEBUG_SEGMENT_[segment name] flags being turned on.

DEBUG_SEGWRAP

Show debug messages to announce when a segment is about to be executed and when it has finished.

DEBUG_OUTPUT (values: file, messagebox, nothing)

By default debugging will write its output to a file Data\debug.log in the portable application package and show a message box which pauses execution and allows you to terminate execution. If you want it to only log to a file, set this to file, like this:

!define DEBUG_OUTPUT file

If you want to only show the message boxes, set this to messagebox, like this:

!define DEBUG_OUTPUT messagebox

Any other value will cause debugging messages to not be shown. If you want both, leave this value out.

To debug only certain segments, there are more flags:

DEBUG_GLOBAL

Debug outside all segments.

DEBUG_SEGMENT_[segment name]

Debug the segment given by [segment name], e.g. DEBUG_SEGMENT_RunAsAdmin to debug the RunAsAdmin segment.