Unable to debug AppHost

[cecilphillip]

Describe the bug
I am able to debug other projects in the solution but breakpoints don't get trigger in the AppHost.
This happens when using the AppHost configuration, but breakpoints get trigger when I use the ".NET Launch settings profile" instead

To Reproduce

• Create a new Aspire starter application
• Set a breakpoint in the appHost Program.cs

Expected behavior

Screenshots
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Reproducing sample
Link to a test project to reproduce the bug.

System information:

• OS: MacOS
• .NET version: 8
• JetBrains Rider version: 2024.2.3
• Aspire plugin version: 1.3.0
• Aspire workload version: 8.2.0

[rafaelldi]

@cecilphillip Thank you for the feedback. Actually, "it's not a bug, it's a feature". I intentionally run the Host project without a debugger attached to simplify the user experience. From what I understand, Host project is more like docker-compose.yml with the dependencies described, and you probably don't need to debug it. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have scenarios where the debugger is necessary?

[cecilphillip]

Hi @rafaelldi. Thanks for an explanation. That makes total sense now that you say it.

I was working on some custom resources and wasn't understanding why my break points were not getting hit. Honestly I thought I was doing something wrong 😂.

My assumption was that the experience would be the same for both, with regards to debugging the app host.

Maybe there could be a small section in the plugin documentation that talks about this.

[gabynevada]

@cecilphillip Thank you for the feedback. Actually, "it's not a bug, it's a feature". I intentionally run the Host project without a debugger attached to simplify the user experience. From what I understand, Host project is more like docker-compose.yml with the dependencies described, and you probably don't need to debug it. What are your thoughts on this? Do you have scenarios where the debugger is necessary?

A very common use case would be to debug your 'composing' process, over time it will very likely get complex enough that a debugger would be helpful.

[rafaelldi]

Thank you! I'll consider to support debugging

[ForNeVeR]

In other Rider configurations (without Aspire), Multilaunch configs allow the user to choose what they want and what they don't want to debug.

Perhaps we can add a checkbox to the Aspire configuration (unchecked by default if we consider it a better choice), to create a separate debug session for the Host projects?

[rafaelldi]

Nice idea!

[rafaelldi]

I decided to keep it simple. Just enable host debugging if it's a debugging session. I think this is the clearest option.