Option -Zi: Emit Symbolic Debugging Info
Option -Zi generates symbolic debugging info in CodeView V4 style for OMF and COFF output format. For other formats, this option is accepted, but ignored. Note that -Zi will always enable -Zd ( line number information ). Debuggers which have been verified to work with this option:
| MS CodeView | 16-bit, Windows and DOS |
| MS CDB or NTSD | 32- and 64-bit, Windows |
| MS WinDbg | 32- and 64-bit, Windows |
| MS Visual Studio 2008 | 32-bit[1], Windows |
| MS Visual Studio 2010 | 32-bit[1], Windows |
| Open Watcom WD/WDW | 16- and 32-bit, Windows and DOS |
| Pelles C IDE | 32-bit[1], Windows |
Usually both the assembler and the linker must be told that symbolic debugging information is to be generated ( with MS link, the linker option is /DEBUG ).
The -Zi option accepts an optional numeric argument to control the volume of information that is emitted. The values currently accepted are:
| 0 | Just global symbols will be written. |
| 1 | Global & local symbols will be written. No user-defined types are included. Usually this reduction does no harm, but may decrease linking time - if lots of modules are to be linked, the effect may be quite significant. |
| 2 | This is the default. Global & local symbols and user-defined types are written. |
| 3 | Additionally to 2, symbolic constants (equates) will be written. |
Also see OPTION CODEVIEW for additional switches to control symbolic debugging output.