GDB Debugger - Beyond

Hi all, Beyond Debug is a debug adapter for Visual Studio Code. It implemented through the GDB’s Machine Interface(MI).

Supported Languages

• C, C++,Pascal,ObjectPascal, Fortran, D, Go, Objective-C, Fortran, OpenCL C, Rust, assembly, Modula-2, and Ada.

Supported features

• insert, remove, enable, disable, condition breakpoints
• view local variables
• view watchs
• multi-threaded debugging
• remote, extended-remote debugging
• gdbserver --multi supported
• transfer files from local to remote
• use native commands in debug console
• attach to process

Using the debugger

• Install gdb on your system.
• Install the Beyond Debug extension in VS Code.
• Open your project
• Switch to the debug viewlet and press the gear dropdown.
• Select the debug environment "GDB(Beyond)".
• Press the green 'play' button to start debugging.

You can now debugging your program.

Launch a program

Use launch.json and setting request to "launch". You also need to specify the executable path for the debugger to find the debug symbols.

{
    "type": "by-gdb",
    "request": "launch",
    "name": "Launch(gdb)",
    "program": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}"
}

Attach to process

Attaching to existing processes currently only works by specifying the processId in the launch.json and setting request to "attach". You also need to specify the executable path for the debugger to find the debug symbols. If the argument program arg is not set, a pickprocess window will be displayed. If the argument program is set and only one process is found ,the debugger will start automatically.

{
    "type": "by-gdb",
    "request": "attach",
    "name": "Attach(gdb)",
    "program": "{fileBasenameNoExtension}",
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}"
}

This will attach to 5678 which should already run.

Connect to gdbserver

You can use gdbserver as your remote debugger. For that modify the launch.json by setting request to "launch" and set remote section as below:

{
    "type": "by-gdb",
    "request": "launch",
    "name": "Launch(gdb)",
    "program": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
    "remote": { 
        "enabled": true,
        "address": ":2345",
        "mode": "remote",
        "execfile": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}"
    }
}

You also need to specify the executable path for the debugger to find the debug symbols.

This will connect to the remote gdbserver on localhost:2345.

Transfer file form local to remote

Often, if doing cross-platform compilation, we need to transfer locally compiled files to the server. To do that, you need set remote - transfer as below:

{
    ...
    "remote": { 
        "enabled": true,
        "address": ":2345",
        "mode": "remote",
        "execfile": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
        "transfer": [
            { 
                "from": "${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
                "to":   "${fileBasenameNoExtension}"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Use extended-remote mode

To use extende-remote mode. You must run gdbserver as gdbserver --multi. Then change remote mode to extended-remote in launch.json

{
    
    "remote": { 
        "enabled": true,
        "address": ":2345",
        "mode": "extended-remote",
        "execfile": "[filename]",
    }
}

Use gdb through SSH

To use gdb through SSH. You can use ssh mode like this.

{
    
    "ssh": {
        "enabled": true,
        "address": "123.123.1.1:1234",
        "username": "root",
        "passwordType": "none",
        "timeout":1000,
        //"privateKey":"~/.ssh/id_rsa"
        //"remoteSrcPrefix": "/root/test/src",
        //"loacalSrcPrefix": ""
        // "transfer": [
        //     {"from": "z:/tmp/src/project1","to": "/root/test/project1"}
        // ]
    }
}

If passwordType and privateKey is None, it will try to use .ssh/id_rsa file of system for authentication.

Use gdb's native command

You can use all the GDB commands from the debug console. Just like in the shell.

View Memory

You can view memory data on debug console or Microsoft Hex Editor if it installed. Rignt click in editor on deubgging or use command byeond:View Memory. If no content is selected, you can input address like this:[address or variable]:[address length (default:100) ], e.g. 0x1111:12 or 0x1111 or va:123 or s.c_str():100 ...

Configuration

Todo List

• Add i18n supports
• lldb-mi support

Thanks

• dbgmits This library used to programmatically control debuggers that implement the GDB/Machine Interface via JavaScript.