Debug GNU using VS Code without GDB - c++

Question

Over the weekend I had installed a gcc through the MSYS2 bash. I set it up in VS code and have it working properly. I even had the GDB working (yes I know this is a debugger). But, my main question is, is it possible to use the debugging function in VS code to debug rather then GDB. Pressing F5 it pulls up the launch.json file and gives me launch: program 'enter program name, for example c:\School\a.exe' does not exist .After some research I see you give it a file to the args to allow it run in debugger. When I do this though I can't seem to either give it the right file or make it work overall. I am also using a.exe rather than a.out. I'm unsure if this has effect.
{
// Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
// Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
// For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "(gdb) Launch",
"type": "cppdbg",
"request": "launch",
"program": "enter program name, for example ${workspaceFolder}/a.exe",
"args": ["C:\\School\\CSE340\\project2\\main.cpp"],
"stopAtEntry": false,
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"environment": [],
"externalConsole": true,
"MIMode": "gdb",
"miDebuggerPath": "/path/to/gdb",
"setupCommands": [
{
"description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
"text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
"ignoreFailures": true
}
]
}
]
}

Answer 1

VS Code does not have an internal debugger (see here). You need to use GDB or the visual studio debugger (if you have the latter).
In your launch.json you need to modify the entries:
"program": this is the path to the program you want to debug, i.e. your compiled program (can be a relative path to your project folder)
"miDebuggerPath": this is the path to GDB
"args": these are arguments, you want to pass to your programm for debugging purposes, i.e. you can leave this blank
So the launch.json file for you would look something like this:
{
// Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
// Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
// For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "(gdb) Launch",
"type": "cppdbg",
"request": "launch",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}\\CSE340\\project2\\main.exe",
"args": [],
"stopAtEntry": false,
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"environment": [],
"externalConsole": true,
"MIMode": "gdb",
"miDebuggerPath": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gdb.exe", // Path where your gdb.exe is located
"setupCommands": [
{
"description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
"text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
"ignoreFailures": true
}
]
}
]
}
${workspaceFolder} is a path variable to your workspace and seems to point to C:\\School\\, so maybe you'll need to modify the value of "program" to point to the application that you want to debug. You could also specify the absolute path to your program.
Also, do not forget to compile your code with debug-flags (-g), these are needed by GDB in order to step through the code. For example:
g++ -g main.cpp -o main.exe