RAD Debugger is a native, user-mode, multi-process, graphical debugger for Windows x64 that supports debugging with PDB files.
The debugger addresses the need for a modern debugging experience on Windows by providing a graphical interface for multi-process debugging. It works by parsing debug information through a custom intermediate format called RAD Debug Info (RDI), which converts existing debug formats like PDB into an optimized representation. This approach allows the debugger to work with standard toolchain outputs while gaining performance and compatibility benefits. The linker can generate either standard PDB files or native RDI format directly, eliminating conversion overhead during debugging.
Developers working on large Windows x64 projects with complex debug information should consider this tool, particularly those experiencing slow link times or PDB generation failures on gigantic executables. The debugger is currently in alpha and supports only local-machine Windows x64 debugging, though the README indicates plans to expand to Linux and DWARF support. The project is most immediately useful for teams building very large applications where the linker's parallelization and RDI format support provide measurable performance improvements during the compile-debug cycle.
The project maintains an active issue tracker where contributors are encouraged to report problems with detailed reproduction steps and supporting artifacts. Development includes ongoing work on the RDI format specification, which is defined in code within the library folders, alongside an in-progress library for constructing and serializing RDI data. The radbin utility provides conversion and inspection capabilities for debug information formats, accessible both as a standalone tool and through the debugger itself.
