reducing windbg symbol load timeout value

Question

Hi,

I am currently using Microsoft's Symbol Server to gather symbol
information for loaded modules.  I notice that sometimes, when it
tries to look up the symbol for a module that is
non-Microsoft-related, it still looks up the symbol in the symbol
server and then times out.  The error message I get is:

"SYMSRV:  http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/vmxnet.pdb/6FC7F2BCA9AA475DB24CCDDD0239A14E1/vmxnet.pdb
not found
SYMSRV:  The operation timed out".

It seems like it is waiting at least 20 seconds for a timeout which
makes it unbearable sometimes to try to load all symbols.

So, I was wondering if there is a way to tell Windbg to timeout after
a much smaller time (such as 2 seconds?) so that I am not waiting so
long.  Note that I've tried setting the microsoft symbol server last
in the Symbol paths so that it doesn't check the server unless it does
not exist anywhere else; however, there are still quite a few symbols
that are not owned by me and microsoft that still results in a lookup
in the microsoft symbol server.

Thanks!

Answer 1

it seems you posted the same question at osr online windbg list

make a file named symsrv.ini in windbg folder

insert a section called exclusions in that file

and include all the module names for which you do not want windbg to
look up symbols for

like av drivers and other stuff

windbg will skip looking for the symbols of those modules


F:\windbg>type symsrv.ini

;start of symsrv.ini
[exclusions]
Normaliz.*
xpsp2res.*
mshtml.*
pdm.*
iphlpapi.*
aswMon2.*
aswFsBlk.*
aswSP.*
ipnat.*
vmm.*


windbg will throw this msg and move forward without hitting the symbol server

.*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for \SystemRoo
t\System32\Drivers\aswFsBlk.

SYS
..*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for \SystemRo
ot\System32\Drivers\aswMon2.SYS

Answer 2

Thanks.  Yeah, I wasn't sure if the windbg OSR mailing list was monitored.  It looks like it is though :)  

I didn't know about the symsrv.ini file.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!!