Sourcemap remote debugging with break points

[tinganho]

I tried a whole day to get remote debugging with break points on my VM, but I didn't succeed. I have read all old issues, blog posts and SO. But I still cannot figure out what I've done wrong?

I have a VM running locally on my Mac at host app.local. Inside the VM I have a folder /home/myusername/app, I have a TS project. Here is my configurations :

    {
        "compilerOptions": {
            "module": "commonjs",
            "target": "es5",
            "noImplicitAny": true,
            "outDir": "Build",
            "rootDir": ".",
            "experimentalDecorators": true,
            "jsx": "react",
            "reactNamespace": "Element",
            "removeComments": true,
            "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
            "strictNullChecks": true,
            "noEmitOnError": true,
            "noImplicitThis": true,
            "inlineSourceMap": true,
            "inlineSources": true
        },
        "exclude": [
            "node_modules",
            "vendor"
        ]
    }

And here is my launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Attach",
            "type": "node",
            "request": "attach",
            "address": "app.local",
            "port": 5858,
            "sourceMaps": true,
            "localRoot": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "remoteRoot": "/home/myusername/app",
            "restart": true
        }
    ]
}

I can see the generated files have inlined source map and inlined sources(I have also tried with non-inlined mapping as well). I start the server node-dev --debug Build/Start.js. After that I attach to the process and succeeds. But the problem comes when I try to set a break point — it fails?

I have also tried many remoteRoot paths to hopefully get the breakpoints working, though failed? I don't think I have a remote idea what I've done wrong at this moment.

[FredericLatour]

I'm not able to make it work with docker as well (a nodejs/express/typescript app).
I've spent hours on trying all possible combinations of remoteroot, localroot, outdir, inline & external sourcemaps without any success?

Can someone possibly make a clear statement about whether it is supposed to work?
And if yes maybe come up with a sample (a docker sample would be great as it would make it possible to easily run it without complex setup) that would clarify the necessary configuration settings.

That's really frustrating to spend hours and days on something that is maybe not working at all.

For information, I was able to remode debug pure nodejs/express javascript.

[weinand]

@FredericLatour are you able to set and hit breakpoints in *.js files if the "sourceMaps" attribute in your launch config is set to false?

[FredericLatour]

@weinand As written I was able indeed to remode debug (and set breakpoints) if no sourcemaps are involved but maybe you are asking for something more specific?

[weinand]

@FredericLatour I'm asking whether you were able to set and hit breakpoints in *.js files in your Docker/TypeScript app when the "sourceMaps" attribute in your launch config is set to false. If yes, then this means that remoteroot, and localroot are correctly set and we can focus on the source map issue.
I'm not asking about a different nodejs/express javascript app.

[FredericLatour]

@weinand . Ok. As far as I remember (have done hundreds of tries since then): yes. But for the sake of starting on the right track, I will check right now and will let you know.

As far as I can understand, you are meaning that this is supposed to work. Don't want to look like I'm insisting but why not having a sample docker based repository posted? I mean, if I can clone a repository and see by myself that this is working properly, not only I would be confident to spend additional time on this but also I'll be able to compare the sample configuration/settings with my own configuration.

Will check your specific question now and post back the result.

[weinand]

I've just verified on macOS with Docker that this project made available by @delfinof in #2472 works for me without modification. I can set breakpoints in index.ts and they are hit reliably.

[weinand]

@FredericLatour yes, I could post sample projects on github for thousand of interesting node.js + something (e.g. Docker) use cases but I'm actually a developer on the VS Code team, not on the Docker team ;-)
I prefer @delfinof's approach: he helped me with a small sample project that showed a problem with source maps in a Docker setup, I fixed a bug in node-debug and now the project can be used an an example that VS Code & Docker & source maps seem to work.
If it doesn't work for you let's try to find out what the difference might be...

[FredericLatour]

@weinand I see what you mean but at the same time, I can't see hundreds of use-cases involving local/remote stuff with vscode. Besides "editing features", debugging is a hot topic ... And being able to debug "typescript" MS great js superset from another great MS tool "vscode" using current modern dev workflow (docker/vagrant/what else...) seems not even optional to me but I may be biased ...

the docker sample is just an easy way for you (vscode team) to provide a sample that shows explicitly that remode debugging is working both with and without sourcemaps.
It could be a VM as well, but you will have a hard time to provide a VM that can be used as-is whereas a docker config for local/remote debuging can be run in a matter of minutes.

Yes, the @delfinof project is exactly what I was suggesting. However I tried it and it didn't work. But not being published from vscode team, it was hard to say this sample is confirmed to be working on both windows and mac. Moreover, as you can see, the launch config is different between windows (a specific IP address 10.0.75.2) and mac (address = localhost). That's a bit surprising considering that docker for windows works the same way.

Still will retry @delfinof sample ... could have been tired the other day after hundreds of configuration settings changes...

Now if you have someone that has both Windows 10 and docker for windows in your team ... that would be great if this person could give it a try (just need 10 minutes).

Will post back my results .

[tinganho]

FYI tried on 2 different projects and on 6 occasions. Debugging with breakpoints have never worked for me since VSCode launched. Many hours lost.

[weinand]

@FredericLatour I suggest that you try to run the docker sample from #2472 on Windows 10 since that seems to be platform where you've experienced the problem (you didn't mention what OS and node version you are using, so I just picked OS X).
If it doesn't work for you then we have a reproducible test case.
And please enable source map tracing by adding this attribute/value to the launch config:

"trace": "sm"

[FredericLatour]

@weinand Tried on my project. Set sourceMaps to false, removed outDir settings, set localRoot to the dest folder (where I generate typescript or copy js files for those files that are pure js)

{
            "name": "bo-server",
            "type": "node",
            "request": "attach",
            "port": 5858,
            "address": "localhost",
            "restart": true,
            "sourceMaps": false,
            "localRoot": "${workspaceRoot}/build/server",
            "remoteRoot": "/code/build/server"
        },

Now for some reasons, I can breakpoint in pure js files (files copied from src to build folder without transpilation) but not in js files transpiled from typescript. Doesn't make anys sense if you ask me!!

I thought that maybe it was the reference to the sourcemap within the js file:

• deleted the sourcemap file
• deleted the reference to the map file in the source
• did a docker-compose down, then a docker-compose up -d

Still not able to break point in js files that are transpiled from ts. Those things can make you crazy ... Any idea what is happening here?

[FredericLatour]

@weinand Will now try to run the sample from #2472 again (as you can see in issue thread, I had posted a message indicating that it was not working for me).