Keep symbols for every build you ship

How to do it

A crash report from a release build holds only memory addresses. Without the symbols of that exact build, nobody can tell which line failed. Windows builds produce PDB files, Mac builds produce dSYM bundles, and Linux builds keep separate debug files. Electron and Chromium-based apps write minidumps through Crashpad. Electron's documentation says you need the symbols for the exact Electron version, platform and architecture that crashed. Electron runs a public symbol server for its own binaries. For your own native modules, generate symbols with a tool such as Breakpad's dump_syms and keep them for every release. Upload them from the release job, as upload symbols for every build does for phone apps. Strip personal data from reports before they leave the machine. Let the user turn uploads off, as send usage data only after the user says yes says.

Examples

JavaScript example

// Electron main process: crash reports go to your server only when the user allowed it
import { app, crashReporter } from 'electron';

crashReporter.start({
  submitURL: 'https://crashes.example.com/ledgerly',
  uploadToServer: settings.get('sendCrashReports') === true,
  globalExtra: { release: app.getVersion() },
});

Python example

# release_symbols.py: keep the symbols of each binary under its version, and fail the release on any error
import subprocess, sys, httpx

version, binaries = sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2:]
for binary in binaries:
    symbols = subprocess.run(["dump_syms", binary], check=True, capture_output=True).stdout
    response = httpx.post("https://crashes.example.com/api/symbols", data={"version": version}, files={"file": symbols}, timeout=60)
    response.raise_for_status()

How to check

The release job fails when the symbol upload for any shipped binary fails. A test build crashes on purpose, and its report on the crash server names the function and source line. Symbols exist for every version that sent a report in the last 90 days.

Sources

• Electron, crashReporter
• Electron, Crash reporting
• Microsoft, Symbol server and symbol stores

Related rules

• MOB-31 Upload symbols for every build in Mobile apps
• DSK-42 Send usage data only after the user says yes in Desktop apps and extensions