"Run Without Debugging is not supported" message, even though it works

[Magyar57]

Environment

• OS and version: Linux 7.0.11-arch1-1
• VS Code: 1.124.0
• C/C++ extension: 1.32.2
• GDB / LLDB version: gdb 17.2

Bug Summary and Steps to Reproduce

An annoying message:

Run Without Debugging is not supported for configurations with 'miDebuggerServerAddress' set.

appears in the output tab of vscode, focusing it, when launching a remote debug session with the Debug: Start without debugging vscode command. This message appears despite the 'run without debugging' feature working as expected (it does not stop at breakpoints).

To me, the issue is the combined, annoying fact that:

• run without debugging works fine
• the "output" tab gets focused, hiding the terminal output

If run without debugging actually didn't work, it would make sense to show this tab. But it actually works how intended (or at least for what I need it for)

The issue was introduced with this commit: 291e5a3

Steps to reproduce:

1. mkdir -p test/.vscode
2. echo 'int main(){return 0;}' >test/main.c && gcc -g -O0 test/main.c -o test/main
3. code test
4. Write to test/.vscode/launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
		{
		"type": "cppdbg",
		"request": "launch",
		"name": "reproduce",
		"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
		"program": "${workspaceFolder}/main",
		"MIMode": "gdb",
		"miDebuggerServerAddress": "127.0.0.1:12345"
		}
    ]
}

4. Start a fake GDB (TCP) server: nc -l 12345
5. code test
6. Open command palette, run Debug: Start without Debugging, selecting the reproduce target

You can see the warning in the OUTPUT panel, which has been focused.
The connection will timeout, because there is no actual gdb server. But if there is, debugging works absolutely fine. I'm sorry i can't provide a more accurate reproduction, without effectively providing my entire project

Debugger Configurations

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
		{
		"type": "cppdbg",
		"request": "launch",
		"name": "my_wonderful_reproducable_bug",
		"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
		"program": "${workspaceFolder}/main",
		"MIMode": "gdb",
		"miDebuggerServerAddress": "127.0.0.1:12345"
		}
    ]
}

Debugger Logs

Run Without Debugging is not supported for configurations with 'miDebuggerServerAddress' set.

Other Extensions

No response

Additional Information

No response

[sean-mcmanus]

@bobbrow Do you know what we should do? The code is at https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/main/Extension/src/Debugger/debugAdapterDescriptorFactory.ts#L105

[bobbrow]

What happens for this case is that we send the configuration to the debugger instead of running without debugging. The purpose of the message is to let you know that we weren't able to run without debugging because of the contents of the configuration. We can update the message to say that we're falling back to a normal debug session, but otherwise, this is behaving as expected.

vscode-cpptools/Extension/src/Debugger/debugAdapterDescriptorFactory.ts

Line 39 in 0666a0f

// If the configuration is not supported, gracefully fall back to a regular debug session and log a message to the user.

You have two options to deal with this case:

1. Use F5 to run with debugging instead of CTL+F5 to run without debugging. You should get the same result (debugging works) and no error message.
2. If you want to actually run without debugging locally instead of on your server, create a copy of your launch configuration and remove the unsupported fields and use that config for CTL+F5.

[bobbrow]

Hmm, though it sounds like you're getting an experience where we think you're debugging, but VS Code doesn't send us the breakpoint messages. My response may have been too quick and doesn't give you the experience you want. Perhaps a solution for this would be a setting that allows you to disable the logging.

[Magyar57]

It seems we didn’t understand each other ; what i’m looking to do is what actually happens: running on the server without debugging (not stopping at my breakpoints, which i mean to keep)
An option to disable the logging would work indeed

[github-actions]

Thank you for reporting this issue. We’ll let you know if we need more information to investigate it. Additionally, if you're working with GDB/LLDB, please note that the code is open source at https://github.com/microsoft/MIEngine/wiki/Contributing-Code . Your contributions are always welcome and appreciated.

[bobbrow]

It seems we didn’t understand each other ; what i’m looking to do is what actually happens: running on the server without debugging (not stopping at my breakpoints, which i mean to keep) An option to disable the logging would work indeed

I am planning to add a new property to the launch configuration that you can set which will disable the logging.