CI Crash Dump Analysis

Dotnet repositories run tests on a distributed test infrastructure called Helix. When a test process crashes, Helix captures a dump file and publishes it as an artifact. This skill covers finding those artifacts, downloading them, and analyzing the dump.

When to Use

• A CI test crashed (not just failed with assertion errors)
• User wants to debug a dump from a PR or build

When Not to Use

• Test failed but didn't crash (normal assertion failure) — use ci-analysis
• User already has a dump file locally
• Build failures (no test execution occurred)

Step 1: Identify the Crashed Work Item

If pointed at a PR, use this plugin's ci-analysis skill to find failing Helix jobs. The ci-analysis skill provides Get-CIStatus.ps1:

../ci-analysis/scripts/Get-CIStatus.ps1 -PRNumber <PR> -Repository "dotnet/runtime" -ShowLogs
../ci-analysis/scripts/Get-CIStatus.ps1 -BuildId <BuildId> -ShowLogs

If pointed at an issue (not a PR), look at the issue body and comments for linked AzDO build URLs. Multiple builds may be listed — start with the most recent, as older builds may have expired from AzDO retention policies. Pass its build ID to ../ci-analysis/scripts/Get-CIStatus.ps1. There is no associated PR in this scenario — skip PR correlation in your analysis.

Stacks already in the issue/PR: The issue or PR may already contain a pasted stack trace. Do not simply repeat it — always perform your own independent analysis from the console log and/or dump. You may get better symbol resolution, find additional threads, or identify details the original poster missed. Use any existing stacks as a cross-reference, not a substitute.

Crashes are reported at the work item level. Look for work items that have dump files in their artifacts. Note that even individual test-name failures can be crashes (not just assertion failures) — for example, in dotnet/runtime test crashes are often attributed to individual tests. A single work item may also contain multiple crashes (e.g., tests using RemoteExecutor or process isolation). A PR may have many failures — look specifically for work items with dump files. If multiple work items crashed, list them and ask the user which one to investigate.

Step 2: Check the Console Log First

Before downloading any dump files, check the work item's console log. ../ci-analysis/scripts/Get-CIStatus.ps1 -ShowLogs reports the ConsoleOutputUri, or find it in the Helix work item Details response. In dotnet/runtime, the crash handler runs cdb (or equivalent) on the machine before uploading, so the console log may contain symbolicated native stacks (~*k) and managed stacks (!clrstack -all). Other repos may not have this — the console log may only show test output. If crash stacks are present and symbols are resolved (function names, not just hex addresses), use them as a starting point for analysis. However, stacks alone may not be sufficient — for corruption, heap issues, or cases where managed exceptions are caught by the test framework (common in libs tests using xunit), downloading and analyzing the dump provides deeper insight. If the stacks are missing, truncated, or show only unresolved addresses, proceed directly to download the dump.

Step 3: Query the Work Item for Crash Evidence

Query the Helix API for work item details:

GET https://helix.dot.net/api/2019-06-17/jobs/{jobId}/workitems/{workItemName}

The work item name often contains spaces, parentheses, or other special characters. URL-encode it (e.g., [uri]::EscapeDataString($workItemName) in PowerShell) or the request will 404.

The response includes ExitCode and a Files array (each with FileName and Uri). However, the Files URIs from the Details endpoint can be broken for subdirectory or Unicode filenames. To get reliable download URIs, use the separate ListFiles endpoint:

GET https://helix.dot.net/api/2019-06-17/jobs/{jobId}/workitems/{workItemName}/files

Crash vs. normal failure: Crashes have a negative or large ExitCode and crash artifacts in the Files array: .dmp files (Windows) or .crashreport.json files (macOS/Linux). Normal failures have ExitCode: 1 and no crash artifacts. If there are no dump or crashreport files, stop here — this is a normal test failure, not a crash. Report the failure details to the user and suggest using the ci-analysis skill instead.

.crashreport.json files are generated on macOS and Linux (there is no Windows equivalent). They contain full native call stacks and are often the most useful starting point for crash analysis — check these first before attempting to load the dump.

Common crash exit codes:

Step 4: Download Artifacts

Check the console log first (Step 2). If it already contains the crash stacks, you may not need to download the dump at all. Only proceed with download if the console log doesn't have sufficient detail.

Download files using the ListFiles endpoint URIs. Start with .crashreport.json files (contain stack traces, especially useful for macOS) and .dmp files — these are directly downloadable and often sufficient for initial analysis without needing the full payload.

Duplicate dumps: Crashes often produce multiple dump files for the same crash. On Windows you may see e.g. dotnet.exe.6524.dmp and dotnet.exe(1).6524.dmp — one from Windows Error Reporting and one from createdump. Prefer the createdump variant (usually the (1) file) as it is more reliable for SOS/dotnet-dump. On Linux you may see e.g. core.1000.33 and coredump.33.dmp for the same crash. Prefer the coredump.*.dmp file (produced by createdump) over the core.* file (kernel core dump). In either case, only analyze one and ignore the duplicate.

Download the remaining payload files (runtime binaries, test binaries) only if you need to load the dump in a debugger. Do not use runfo get-helix-payload unless you actually need the full payload — it downloads everything including large runtime binaries. If the Files URIs are inaccessible (expired, 403, etc.) and you do need the payload, fall back to runfo: runfo get-helix-payload -j <jobId> -w <workItem> -o <dir>.

Internal Helix jobs (identified by the org dnceng rather than dnceng-public in URLs, or when the Helix API returns 401/403) require authentication that the agent does not have. Report the job ID and work item name to the user and ask them to download manually.

Extract any archive files (.zip, .tar.gz) in the downloaded payload.

Step 5: Debug the Dump

The dump needs matching runtime binaries (DAC, SOS) from the payload at shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App/<version>/.

dotnet-dump version must match the runtime version of the dump. A .NET 9.0 dotnet-dump cannot load a .NET 11.0 DAC (fails with 0x80004002 or No CLR runtime found). dotnet-dump is backwards compatible, so the simplest approach is to install the latest version: dotnet tool install -g dotnet-dump --prerelease (or dotnet tool update -g dotnet-dump --prerelease). This usually comes from the dotnet-tools feed and works for all supported runtime versions.

If a matching dotnet-dump version is not available (common for unreleased .NET versions where no package exists on NuGet or dev feeds), skip dotnet-dump and use cdb instead (see "Native crashes on Windows" below). cdb does not have the DAC version coupling problem — its !analyze -v and kn commands produce native + managed stacks without needing a matching SOS/DAC version.

When DAC loading fails, run modules -v inside dotnet-dump analyze as a first diagnostic step. This command works without the DAC and shows the full paths of all loaded modules, including the exact coreclr.dll and System.Private.CoreLib.dll that were in use. This tells you which runtime build produced the dump and where to find the matching DAC. Use setclrpath to point to that directory.

Determine the dump's platform from the CI job name (e.g., "windows-x64", "linux-arm64").

OS compatibility

dotnet-dump can analyze managed state cross-platform. Native debuggers require a matching OS.

Cross DAC for Linux dumps on Windows: dotnet-dump needs the cross-DAC binaries to read Linux ELF core dumps. Search the AzDO build artifacts for names containing CrossDac (the exact artifact name varies by build — e.g., CoreCLRCrossDacArtifacts). Copy the matching architecture's binaries into the runtime dir alongside the payload. If no cross-DAC artifact is found, report this to the user.

macOS Mach-O core dumps generally cannot be loaded by dotnet-dump even with cross-DAC. The .crashreport.json files from the Helix Files array contain full native stacks and are the primary analysis path for macOS crashes on non-macOS agents.

If the agent cannot fully analyze the dump (OS mismatch), report the crash type, exit code, dump file path, and runtime binaries path, and suggest the user debug manually.

Managed crashes

Use dotnet-dump analyze. The critical Helix-specific setup:

• setclrpath — point to the runtime binaries from the payload
• setsymbolserver -directory — same path, for symbols
• setsymbolserver (no args) — also enables the Microsoft public symbol server for OS and framework symbols

Start with pe (print exception) and clrstack -all. See SOS command reference for further commands.

Native crashes on Windows

Use cdb.exe (command-line debugger) for native crashes, or as a fallback when dotnet-dump cannot load the DAC (e.g., unreleased .NET versions). cdb does not depend on SOS/DAC version matching for native stacks and !analyze -v.

cdb.exe may be at C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe (Windows SDK) or inside the WinDbg MSIX package (winget install --id Microsoft.WinDbg). To find it in the MSIX package:

$pkg = Get-AppxPackage -Name "*WinDbg*"
$cdb = Join-Path $pkg.InstallLocation "amd64\cdb.exe"

MSIX sandbox limitation: cdb.exe from the WinDbg MSIX package may not be able to access files at arbitrary paths (e.g., C:\dumps). If it reports "file not found" for a dump that exists, copy the dump to $env:TEMP and open it from there.

Set up the Microsoft public symbol server: .symfix+ c:\symbols. Key commands: !analyze -v (automatic crash analysis), kP / ~*kP (native stacks). For mixed native+managed: .loadby sos coreclr, then !setclrpath, !pe, !clrstack.

Native crashes on Linux/macOS

Use lldb with the SOS plugin for combined native + managed debugging. Point it at the dump and the dotnet host binary from the payload. Native commands: bt (backtrace), bt all (all threads), frame variable (locals). After loading the SOS plugin, use setclrpath /setsymbolserver, then pe, clrstack -all for managed state — these SOS commands work inside lldb the same as in dotnet-dump.

For native symbol resolution: runtime binaries in CI are stripped (only .dynsym exports). Use dotnet-symbol --host-only --debugging <path-to-libcoreclr.so> to download the matching .dbg files, which resolve internal function names. Without these, native frames show only as offsets between exported symbols.

Setup: LLDB for .NET.

NativeAOT crashes

The CI job name will contain "NativeAOT" (e.g., "osx-arm64 Release NativeAOT_Libraries"). SOS does not work with NativeAOT. Use cdb or lldb directly.

After Loading the Dump

Always include the following in your report to the user:

• A link to the PR or build that was analyzed
• The exit code and its meaning (e.g., 0xC0000005 = access violation)
• The crashing thread's call stack (and any other relevant threads), with symbols resolved as far as possible — this is the most important output
• Any managed exception type, message, and inner exception stack (use pe) if different from the native crash stack
• Links to existing issues that match this crash — search the repo for open issues (and also closed issues) with matching crash signatures, stack frames, or error messages. If found, link them so the user can see prior context and whether this is a known problem.

Without these the user cannot verify your interpretation or dig deeper.

Use the backtrace, exception info, heap state, etc. together with the PR's code changes to understand why the crash happened. Correlate the crash location with what was changed — a crash in code touched by the PR is likely caused by it; a crash elsewhere may be pre-existing or a side effect.

If the crash is in a native binary not part of the PR, report its version metadata (lm v m <module> in cdb, image list <module> in lldb) — the version helps identify which build or package introduced it.

Use your judgement and knowledge of the codebase to form a diagnosis and suggest a fix.

Common Pitfalls

• Helix artifacts expire after 20 days. If downloads fail with 404, the artifacts have likely expired — tell the user.
• AzDO builds also expire due to retention policies. If a build returns "not found", try a more recent build. When multiple builds are listed (e.g., in an issue), start with the newest.
• dotnet-dump only handles managed state. For native crashes, use cdb/lldb on matching OS.
• 32-bit dumps on 64-bit OS: Use 32-bit dotnet SDK to install dotnet-dump.
• Mobile/WASM dumps are not covered — report the dump location and hand off.
• Internal jobs (dnceng org) require auth the agent doesn't have — report and hand off.

Further Reading

• dotnet-dump
• SOS debugging extension
• Debugging .NET core dumps