harpoon

This is a VSCode extension that monitors the main process of an active DebugSession for spawned child processes. Once a child process is identified, an attempt will be made to attach a new DebugSession to that child process. If source code is available in the current workspace, the attach will succeed and the child process can be stepped through.

Purpose

This extension is really useful for applications that spawn child processes. Take the following C# code for example:

static void Main(string[] args) {
    ...

    var p = Process.Start("node", "index.js");

    p.WaitForExit();

    ...
}

Normally, in order to debug the node process you would need to sleep the current thread and manually attach the debugger. Harpoon will discreetly check for the system for child processes every second.

Install

• https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=NagyTech.harpoon; or
• Search for 'harpoon' in the VSCode extension manager; or
• Download the harpoon-x.x.x.vsix file to install manually.

Limitations

• Only tested with a .NET Core parent process
• Only tested with .NET Core and NodeJS child processes

Usage

1. Add a breakpoint to your child application
2. Start a debug session
3. Wait for Harpoon to identify the spawned process and attach the debugger

Using the VSCode Debug control overlay, you can move between active debug sessions by selecting from the dropdown on the right side. This also applied to other VSCode tool windows like Output and Debug Console.

Issues