Breakpad (Deprecated)

Breakpad is the predecessor of Crashpad. If you are configuring a new integration, please consider using our Crashpad integration instead.

Overview

Breakpad is the predecessor of Crashpad. If you are configuring a new integration, please consider using our Crashpad integration instead.

Google Breakpad is a crash reporting tool built by Google in C++. It allows you to submit minidumps to a configured URL as a crash happens. With Breakpad you can process crashes for Windows, macOS, and Linux applications.

In a few simple steps, your Breakpad-enabled application can be configured to send crash reports to BugSplat, allowing you to take advantage of BugSplat's reporting mechanisms.

For more information, see Google's Integration Overview here.

Prerequisites

Before continuing with the integration, please complete the following tasks:

• Create a new database for your application

• Clone the source

• Build the exception_handler and crash_report_sender libraries and integrate them into your application

• Build the dump_syms and symupload tools

Configuration

Configure Breakpad to post crashes to https://{database}.bugsplat.com/post/bp/crash/postBP.php. Be sure to specify your value for the {database} portion of the URL, which corresponds to the BugSplat database used to store your crash reports.

bool minidumpCallback(
  const wchar_t* dump_path,
  const wchar_t* minidump_id,
  void* context,
  EXCEPTION_POINTERS* exinfo,
  MDRawAssertionInfo* assertion,
  bool succeeded
)
{
  ...
  wstring bugSplatUrl = L"https://" + database + L".bugsplat.com/post/bp/crash/postBP.php";
  ReportResult reportResult = reportSender->SendCrashReport(bugSplatUrl, parameters, files, &exceptionCode);
}

Configure the Breakpad POST parameters prod for the BugSplat application name and ver for the BugSplat application version. You can optionally specify values for the POST parameters email and comments, which will be tracked with each crash report. Also, configure the files parameter as shown below.

bool minidumpCallback(
  const wchar_t* dump_path,
  const wchar_t* minidump_id,
  void* context,
  EXCEPTION_POINTERS* exinfo,
  MDRawAssertionInfo* assertion,
  bool succeeded
)
{
  ...
  map<wstring, wstring> parameters;
  parameters[L"prod"] = L"MyApp";
  parameters[L"ver"] = L"1.0";
  parameters[L"email"] = L"[e-mail]";
  parameters[L"comments"] = L"BugSplat rocks!";
  files[L"upload_file_minidump"] = MinidumpDescriptor.path();
  ReportResult reportResult = reportSender->SendCrashReport(bugSplatUrl, parameters, files, &exceptionCode);
}

Create a new symbol store on our Versions page. You should do this for each released product version to ensure your crash reports contain function names and line numbers.

Trigger a crash in your application. The following code snippet can be used to generate an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION_WRITE crash:

int nullVal;
void crash()
{
  *(volatile int *)0 = nullVal;
}

Uploading Breakpad Symbols

Upload your application's symbol files to BugSplat for symbolic call stack information. For more information on how to upload symbols manually, please see this article. Alternatively, you can use symupload to automate the symbol upload process. Run the following symupload command replacing {database}, {appName} and {appVersion} with values specific to your BugSplat database and symbol store:

symupload <file.exe|file.dll> "https://{database}.bugsplat.com/post/bp/symbol/breakpadsymbols.php?appName={appName}&appVer={appVersion}"

Breakpad symbol uploads for platforms other than Windows (e.g., Linux, Mac) require an additional step. First, run the Breakpad utility dump_syms to create .sym files from your local executable files. Then, use symupload to upload the .sym files to BugSplat.

Operating system symbol files can be uploaded in a similar manner. You may be able to find symbolic debug files for your operating system. If these are available when dump_syms is run, your OS call stack functions will be fully symbolicated.

Additional Considerations

Crashes can be posted manually using our test page at https://{database}.bugsplat.com/post/bp/crash/Native/index.php. Replace {database} with the name of your BugSplat database. Viewing the source HTML of that page may help with the configuration.

The BugSplat database for your crash reports is created on the Manage Database page in Settings. Typically, you will create a new database for each major product release.