cdt-gdb-adapter

CDT GDB Debug Adapter

This is an implementation of the Debug Adapter Protocol for gdb. It is loosely based on the Eclipse CDT MI layer. We are at least learning from it.

The source code can be found in the following repository: https://github.com/eclipse-cdt-cloud/cdt-gdb-adapter

Prerequisites

• Install Node.js® on your machine and ensure it is on your path.
  • The currently minimum required version is 20.x (LTS).
• Install Yarn which is used to build and execute scripts in this repository:

  > npm install -g yarn
  

• You need the following tools to run node-gyp as part of the nativebuild script. This is optional during development and enables the use of the openGdbConsole configuration option on Linux.
  • Install Python version 3.8 or later.
  • Install a valid C++ toolchain for your host OS.
  • See the node-gyp installation manual for more details.

Building

Build is pretty simple.

yarn

Running

The entry point for the adapter is cdtDebugAdapter for local debugging and cdtDebugTargetAdapter for target (remote) debugging.

Command line arguments

--server=PORT

Start the adapter listening on the given port instead of on stdin/stdout.

--config=INITIALCONFIG

Start the adapter using the given configuration as a starting point for the args in launch or attach request.

For example, the default GDB can be set like this:

    node debugTargetAdapter.js --config='{"gdb":"arm-none-eabi-gdb"}'

The config can be passed on the command line as JSON, or a response file can be used by starting the argument with @. The rest of the argument will be interpreted as a file name to read. For example, to start the adapter defaulting to a process ID to attach to, create a file containing the JSON and reference it like this:

    cat >config.json <<END
    {
      "processId": 1234
    }
    END
    node debugAdapter.js --config=@config.json

--config-frozen=FROZENCONFIG

Similar to --config, the --config-frozen sets the provided configuration fields in the args to the launch or attach request to the given values, not allowing the user to override them. Specifying which type of request is allowed (launch or attach) can be specified with the request field. When freezing the type of request, regardless of which type of request the user requested, the frozen request type will be used.

For example, the adapter can be configured for program to be frozen to a specific value. This may be useful for starting adapters in a container and exposing the server port.

    node debugAdapter.js --server=23221 --config-frozen='{"program":"/path/to/my.elf"}'

Testing

Testing of the adapter can be run with yarn test. See Integration Tests readme for more details, including how to setup a Windows machine with msys2 to run the tests.

Testing on GitHub Actions

Pull Requests built using GitHub actions. In the GitHub actions result you can examine test report and download the test-logs artifacts which are the verbose logs of each test that was run. See Integration Tests readme for more details

Debugging

To debug the adapter there are multiple options depending on how this module is integrated. For example, if being used as a VS Code extension, see https://github.com/eclipse-cdt-cloud/cdt-gdb-vscode#building.

However, if you are writing tests and developing this module independently you can use the launch configurations in the launch.json with VS Code. For example, if you open a *.spec.ts file in VS Code you can use the "Mocha Current File & launch Server" configuration to automatically launch the debug server in one debugged process and the test in another.

Changelog

1.2.0

• Fixes cdt-gdb-vscode #173: Add target>watchServerProcess setting to ignore early exit of server executable, e.g. if a launcher for actual gdbserver.
• Fixes #330 / cdt-gdb-vscode #151: Cannot remove breakpoint when debugging (Windows, Theia).
• Fixes #362: Cannot execute CLI commands like > interrupt from Debug Console while CPU is running.
  Note: Depends on whether a blocking command was executed from CLI before.
• Fixes #367: Debugging with gdbtarget fails if program is omitted, despite user doc claiming it's optional.
• Fixes #398: Give gdbserver time to gracefully disconnect before terminating it.
• Enhancement: Improve error message if setting more HW breakpoints than supported by target.
• Enhancement: Improve error message on -target-select timeout on Windows.