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I have a process running under Windows Server 2003 SP2. When I want to check stack trace of one of its threads it is always limited to 9 entries. Those entries are resolved correctly (I have PDBs in place) but list is just cut in middle.
Do you know of any limitation in Process Explorer?
I am assuming that you think the complete stack trace for this thread should have more than 9 entries. You don’t mention if 32 bit OS or 64 bit OS, but I will assume 32 bit OS and then cover 64 bit as an afterthought.
Sometimes when collecting a stack trace on 32 bit systems you cannot collect any items for the stack trace or you can only collect a limited amount of stack frame information even though you know the callstack is deeper. The reasons for this are:
Different calling conventions put data in different places on the stack, making it hard to walk the stack. I can think of 4 definitions, 3 in common use, one more exotic: cdecl, fastcall, stdcall, naked.
For release builds, the code optimizer may do away with the frame pointers using a technique known as Frame Pointer Omission (FPO). Without the FPO (and sometimes, even with the FPO data in a PDB file) you cannot successfully walk the callstack.
Hooks – any helper DLLs, anti-virus, debugging hooks, instrumented code, malware, etc, may mess up the callstack at somepoint because they’ve inserted their own stub code on the callstack and that small section may not be walkable by the stack walker.
Bytecode virtual machines. Depending upon how the virtual machine is written, the VM may place trampolines on the callstack to aid its execution. These will make the stack hard to walk successfully.
Because of the variety of calling conventions on 32 bit Windows (from both Microsoft and other vendors) it is hard to work out what to expect when you move from one frame to another.
For 64 bit systems there is one calling convention specified. That makes life a lot easier. That said, you still have the issues of helper DLLs and hooks doing their own thing with the stack and that may still cause you problems when walking the stack.
I doubt there is a limitation in Process Explorer. I think the issue is just that walking the callstack for that thread is problematic because of one of the reasons I’ve listed above.