Debugging story

[razzmatazz]

We don't have any debugging story documented/suggested for our users.

We should:

• suggest using sdb for mono projects
• recommend alternative editors (VS Code has .NET debugging covered) – very reluctantly :)
• attempt to integate at least a primitive form of debugger into the experience, via sdb+GUD maybe?. Not sure about the right way to do this though..

[kirill-gerasimenko]

Hi, I just know that this one exists, but never tried it myself https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/tools/mdbg-exe

[ghost]

This would be amazing!

[Daniel-V1]

Have you seen these by any chance? Would it be helpful for this?

https://github.com/yyoncho/dap-mode
https://github.com/Samsung/netcoredbg

Looks like one editor is using netcoredbg via the Debug Adapater protocol already -
https://github.com/eclipse/aCute

[sebasmonia]

I would like to help with this but I can't find out what exactly the VS Code extension uses to debug.
I've found references to a debugger download for Linux but I'm running Windows.

Anyone knows?

[Daniel-V1]

So the VS Code extension uses a debugger that is not legally allowed to be used in other editors - see here (dotnet/core#505) for waaaaay too much information. Try not to get caught up in the resentment.

However, there is a another debugger from Samsung that has been open-sourced and is MIT licensed - referenced above, but it can be found https://github.com/Samsung/netcoredbg. I also referenced dap-mode above, but I think at this point it might be a lost cause for this case because omnisharp-roslyn people don't seem to really care about the lsp implementation at the moment, and dap-mode only works with lsp-mode currently.

The next best possibility that I currently see, but haven't had time to try, is to use the gdb-mi interface that samsung provides in netcoredbg and tie that to existing gdb-mi or realgud (https://github.com/realgud/realgud/wiki/How-to-add-a-new-debugger#check-lang) in emacs. If you have time and energy, I personally think this might be the fastest route to having working debugging for csharp in emacs.

[sebasmonia]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I have seen the Samsung one but didn't realize it was a valid option, thought it was a small project that preceded vsdbg.

I learned some cdb & SOS recently and created an issue in readgud to add cdb support thinking of C# debugging.
Now that I have a clearer picture I should repurpose that open issue to C# using netcoredbg.
But first...learn to use netcoredbg :)

Again, appreciate the detailed response, it set me on a path that hopefully will lead...somewhere.

[sebasmonia]

I was able to build netcoredbg and attach to a process but all the docs I've found on gdb give commands that don't work at all.
So I'm in the right path but need an extra nudge :)

Update: using the repo unit tests to find out which commands work, but if you have any docs they might still be useful.

[Daniel-V1]

Unfortunately I do not. I wound up in the same place as you lol, just checking their unit tests.

[zoechi]

What about https://github.com/dotnet/diagnostics/blob/master/documentation/sos-debugging-extension.md?
Could this work with Emacs for example with dap or gud?
(I'm quite new to Emacs)

[nosami]

I just got dap-mode working with C# and F# coreclr apps - emacs-lsp/dap-mode#138 (comment)