Deployment Tools Foundation
Debugging Managed Custom Actions
Development Guide > Managed CAs > Debugging

There are two ways to attach a debugger to a managed custom action.

Attach to message-box: Add some temporary code to your custom action to display a message box. Then when the message box pops up at install time, you can attch your debugger to that process (usually identifiable by the title of the message box). Once attached, you can ensure that symbols are loaded if necessary (they will be automatically loaded if PDB files were embedded in the CA assembly at build time), then set breakpoints anywhere in the custom action code.

MMsiBreak environment variable: When debugging managed custom actions, you should use the MMsiBreak environment variable instead of MsiBreak. Set the MMsiBreak variable to the custom action entrypoint name. (Remember this might be different from the method name if it was overridden by the CustomActionAttribute.) When the CA proxy finds a matching name, the CLR JIT-debugging dialog will appear with text similar to "An exception 'Launch for user' has occurred in YourCustomActionName." The debug break occurs after the custom action assembly has been loaded, but just before custom action method is invoked. Once attached, you can ensure that symbols are loaded if necessary, then set breakpoints anywhere in the custom action code. Note: the MMsiBreak environment variable can also accept a comma-separated list of action names, any of which will cause a break when hit.