we want to write a VSCode debug extension for remote debugging PL/I source code on the mainframe.
We use IBM's z/OS Explorer, but we don't want to start this heavy Eclipse bundle for debugging (everything else is done in this VSCode extension).
We "wiresharked" the communication with IBM's z/OS Explorer, so it would be no problem to send and receive tcp packages according what the debugger (running on the mainframe) needs.
But we don't understand how debugging could work in a VSCode extension.
Now it is working as following:
Write a dataset on the mainframe
Submit a job with the program you want to debug
When the z/OS Explorer is started, debugging is starting.
What is needed to
1.) init vscode debugging functions
2.) send start command via tcp
3.) receive and display the information via tcp
4.) start, stop and breakpoint functionalities
Any examples etc. would be helpful, thank you!
The only way you will be able to do this is with WAZi developer. You MUST have the IBM Debugger installed on the z/OS, and that is a licensable program. Yes, you could write a debugger on your own, but the cost/benefit grossly exceeds the price of IBM's licenses.
Here's the details on debugging with WAZi
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/developer-for-zos/15.0.0?topic=code-debugging-applications
Related
There is a bug that I would like to fix that only occurs on Windows Server without a GUI running. I have set up a Windows Server 2019 machine on Google Compute Engine that reproduces the bug, and would like to debug it.
Ideally, I would like to use gdb, but seeing as the program was built with Visual Studio 2019, gdb can't read the debugging symbols.
I don't have a Windows machine, so using Visual Studio will be difficult. I could set up a VM, but if there's an in-terminal way to do this that would be preferred.
I did a pretty thorough Google search, but it didn't turn up anything. Is there really no Windows solution for debugging C++ code headlessly?
MS has 2 console debuggers called CDB and NTSD so you don't actually need Visual Studio GUI to do the debugging. In fact there are a lot of debugging environments in Windows from MS beside the usual Visual Studio. Just install them in your Windows Server and control them remotely from your terminal
You can also debug MSVC-compiled code with LLDB since the PDB format has been published long time ago and LLVM on Windows does support it. No idea about current LLDB on Linux though
And since you have the source code, sometimes the old-school printf debugger is the best way to analyze the issue
If you can get a Windows VM it'll be much better to do remote debugging. In fact almost all debuggers support that feature including GDB or LLDB, so even if you don't have the source code you can still run any Windows debugger and step through the instructions instead of high-level code lines from a remote machine
An alternative way is to take a memory dump and debug later. After getting the dump file, just drag it into your VS solution or any debugging tool like WinDbg and then select "Start Debugging". Now you can step through instructions/code lines and examine variables' values, or jump to an arbitrary function's stack frame just as if you're really running the malfunctioning app
There are many ways to dump a process' memory. You can set Windows to automatically save a dump file when your app crashes, or just capture memory snapshots manually during runtime. Comparing 2 snapshots is also useful for detecting leaked memory. For more information on how to do that read
Collecting User-Mode Dumps
Steps to Catch a Simple “Crash Dump” of a Crashing Process
There's also an easy way to take a dump of a live process using task manager (or any other similar tools)
TL;DR: is there a step by step tutorial to do remote code debugging using Eclipse Neon?
I have the source code in a Linux machine with a GCC dev environment. Normally, I ssh to the box, edit the file, and compile/debug using gdb, and it works, but it is a bit clunky for me.
I am now trying to debug the code from my Windows machine using the latest Eclipse version (Neon as of this writing).
I've tried following the instructions online (like this one), but they all seem to point towards (cross-)compiling the code locally, deploying it remotely and debugging there. This is not what I'm after. I essentially want to use Eclipse as a remote text editor+gdb interface, with the building and compiling being done in the remote system.
I've installed CDT, plus pretty much any plugin remotely related to remote development
Remote System Explorer
Remote Launch
GCC Cross compiler support
Remote (over TCF/TE) Run/Debug Launcher
Direct Remote C++ Debugging
TCF C/C++ Debugger
TM Terminal
So far, I can connect to the remote system, create a Remote Project and edit the source code.
I don't need Eclipse to compile the code (I can do that separately) but I'm unable to debug the code.
Using C/C++ Remote Application fails in many creative ways when trying to find gdb in the remote system.
Using GDB (DSF) Automatic Remote Debugging Launcher ends in a java.lang.NullPointerException, which also invalidates the configuration
Using Direct Remote Debugging Launcher asks about a remote workspace, then complains with "Error with command: gdb --version Cannot run program "gdb": Launching failed"
Remote Application complains about the Process/Image field. Setting it to the binary output doesn't enable the Debug button, so no dice.
TCF is dead in the water. It doesn't recognize the SSH connections I set up on RSE, it asks for the username password (I use public keys) and root password (?!) Even when entering that info, it fails to continue.
On a whim, I tried NetBeans, and followed the instructions here, and got it working in five minutes. The mode I'm following is the "Full Remote Development" according to NetBeans. The reason I'll still need to stick to Eclipse is that it is the dev environment that we use in the company, and it makes little sense to me to add another IDE to do something that Eclipse by all rights should do no problem.
What I find is that the walkthroughs for Eclipse I've found are either
Using plugins that are now either deprecated, not supported or have been completely reworked. Eclipse crashes and burns on these.
Trying to compile locally and deploy remotely, doing things like embedded even, but that's not what I'm looking for.
Using the Eclipse DStore client-server combo, which is essentially an alternative to SSH, but not what I'm looking for either.
I'm then hoping someone has written/found a tutorial that is relatively simple to follow (it is, after all, a relatively simple thing to do, as NetBeans has proven), and that works on any version of Eclipse.
I'll consider using an older version of Eclipse, but if so, please be specific in which version I should use, and which plugins I should install.
I see the following error whenever I try to debug "Cross Platform" under "C++" category: "Unable to start debugging. Unexpected GDB output from command "-target-select remote :5039". Remote connection closed"
I've installed all of the contents when I downloaded Visual Studio 2015 community and I ran it on Windows 10 Pro which supports Hyper-V.
I've been searching a solution for this and I've found an assumption:
"What is your debug target, the VS Android Emulator? When we saw this before it turned out to be a bad emulator image. Do you have this problem with all targets (e.g. if you try a physical device) or just one?"
In my case, I just tried this via Emulator(VS Emulator 5" Lolipop (5.0) XXHDP Phone (0x86 -...)
So I've sent an Email to VS 2015.
And the answer was like this:
"Sorry for the delay in responding we were looking at an emulator image of another user that ran into this problem so I was waiting until we had the results of that investigation to report back. We actually were not able to find anything wrong the emulator itself, our current hypothesis is that it is a network or adb problem interfering with GDB’s ability to connect to GDB server on the remote machine. Do you see this error every time you try to debug, or if you reboot the emulator will it work sometimes right after the reboot? Next time you see the error, can you open the emulator’s console mode by going go the Hyper-V manager and double clicking the emulator. Then find the location your app installed to and run “gdbserver --version" from the app path and let me know what it says? This will validate if the correct version of gdbserver is on the device."
So we are trying to solve this problem but I'm also asking here just in case.
Is there anyone who has magical solution for this problem?
I'll put a comment on this if I figure out how to solve this.
Thanks in advance.
** Following answer is from the manager of Visual Studio 2015:
You are only the second person who has run into this issue, and the first person that ran into it provided their everything works correctly when we run their .vhd on our machines so it appears to be some strange problem where gdbserver (which comes from the Android NDK provided by Google) crashes only when running on certain machines. Unfortunately the .vhd you provided does not appear to be the correct one it won’t boot for me. You can see the .vhd file being used by the emulator if you look under the settings of the emulator in your Hyper-V manager. .However given we got the other person’s .vhd you can hold off providing any additional information at this point. I’m waiting to hear back from the emulator team on if they have any ideas since this appears to be an issue only on specific machines since.
If you don’t mind my asking, if you don’t have a background in computers what inspired you to try C++ on Android? That scenario will be significantly more complicated than doing Java on Android.
It's been almost two months since I got this answer but I haven't got any additional response from them yet. So, I ended up quitting developing an application by using VS2015.
If you run into this problem, there are only two ways to go. Change your computer or stop developing application via VS2015.
If the project name contains spaces, the whole remote debugging fails. Visual Studio also creates weird paths. When checking out the "Blink1 for Raspberry Pi" template, I named the Project "Blink1 for Pi", which resulted in a path like this:
~/projects/Blink1?/for/pi/PI/for/pi....
And all the debugging failed. When I recreated this keeping the project name "Blink1", everything worked fine. It's a pity, that spaces aren't handled here...
I'm trying to use Eclipse CDT on Ubuntu for C++ development. I'm working on a large C++ project that leverages Tcl as a scripting language to kick off and control the application.
How can I configure Eclipse to launch the application using shell scripts rather than using a C++ "main" application? The shell scripts launch a Tcl application that in turn calls into the C++ application.
Also, is it possible to debug a C++ application using Eclipse and gdb that's started via a script? If so, how does one go about doing it?
Interesting question. Without being able to provide you a straight solution, but Eclipse (gdb) can be attached to a running program - that may not help in your case.
What about trying to employ some kind of remote debugging? I.e. you start your program with gdb and configure gdb to wait for a remote debugger to attach? The 'remote' debugger will be on your local system, of course.
EDIT:
Start your program via
gdbserver localhost:1234 <executable>
Configure your debug session in Eclipse:
- GDB Hardware Debugging
- I had to select the "Standard GDB Hardware debugging launcher" (Debugger tab at the bottom for Helios)
- Check use remote target: Generic TCP/IP: localhost, port 1234
I didn't manage to resolve symbols yet, that might be a path issue.
We're using the Eclipse CDT 5 C++ IDE on Windows to develop a C++ application on a remote AIX host.
Eclipse CDT has the ability to perform remote debugging using gdbserver. Unfortunately, gdbserver is not supported on AIX.
Is anyone familiar with a way to debug remotely using Eclipse CDT without gdbserver? Perhaps using an SSH shell connection to gdb?
finally I got gdb run remotly anyhow now. At the Bug-symbol on the taskbar I took Debug Configurations - GDB Hardware Debugging.
In Main C/C++ Applications I set the full path on the Samba share of the executable (X:\abin\vlmi9506). I also set a linked folder on X:\abin in the project. Then I modified my batch-script in GDB Setup. It's not directly calling gdb in the plink-session but a unix-shell-script, which opens gdb. By this I have the possibility to set some unix environment-variables for the program before doing debug. The call in my batch:
plink.exe prevoax1 -l suttera -pw XXXXX -i /proj/user/dev/suttera/vl/9506/test/vlmi9506ddd.run 20155 dev o m
In the unix script I started gdb with the command line params from eclipse, that I found in my former tryals. The call in the shell command looks like this:
gdb -nw -i mi -cd=$LVarPathExec $LVarPathExec/vlmi9506
Then IBM just gives gdb 6.0 for AIX. I found version 6.8 in the net at http://www.perzl.org/aix/index.php?n=Main.Gdb. Our Admin installed it.
I can now step through the program and watch variables. I even can write gdb-commands directly in the console-view. yabadabadooooooo
Hope that helps to others as well. Can not tell, what was really the winner-action.
But each answer gives more new questions. Now I got 3 of them.
When I start the debug config I have to click restart in the toolbar to come really in the main procedure. Is it possible to come directly in main without restarting?
On AIX our programs are first preprocessed for embedded sql. The preprocessed c-source is put in another directory. When I duble-click the line to set a breakpoint, I get the warning "unresolved breakpoint" and in the gdb-console I see, that the break is set to the preprocessed source which is wrong. Is it possible to set the breakpoints on the right source?
We are using CICS on AIX. With the xldb-Debugger and the CDCN-command of CICS we manage that debugging is started, when we come in our programs. Is it possible to get that remotely (in plink) with gdb-eclipse as well?
I wouldn't normally take a shot in the dark on a question I can't really test the answer to, but since this one has sat around for a day, I'll give it a shot. It seems from looking at:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/TM_and_RSE_FAQ#How_can_I_do_Remote_Debugging_with_CDT.3F
...that even if the CDT has changed since that wiki page was made, you should still be able to change the debug command to:
ssh remotehost gdb
instead of using TM which uses gdbserver. This will probably be slightly slower than the TM remote debugging since that actually uses a local gdb, but on the other hand this way you won't have to NFS or SMB mount your source code to make it available to the local debugger (and if you're on a LAN it probably won't matter anyhow).
There's also a reference TCF implementation for linux, which you may or may not have any luck recompiling for AIX, but it allows for remote debugging if gdbserver is otherwise not available:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/DSDP/TM/TCF_FAQ
tried also to remotly debug an aix-appl with windows eclipse-cdt-gdb.
Got blocked at the end with unix/windows path-problems. Maybe my result can help u a little further - maybe you already got it work. I'm interested in your comment. asked on eclipse news portal- following the answer of martin oberhuber (thanks again) tried dsp dd (also blocked with path problem) and set an request in eclipse bugzilla.
here the link to news:
http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/article.php?id=406&group=eclipse.dsdp.tm
Here my bugzilla:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=252758
At the moment we still debug localy with xldb but I am trying ddd-gdb at the moment. At least locally gdb is running.