Introduction

The current workflow of C/C++ projects is usually a CMake-based multi-file project, and most of the debug methods introduced on the Internet only have a hello world example, which is far from meeting our needs. This article will introduce how to debug multi-file C/C++ projects in VSCode.

Step

Some explaination based on ChatGPT

1. Create a .vscode folder in the root directory of your project if it doesn’t exist already. This folder will contain the necessary configuration files.
   
   

2. Open VS Code and navigate to the Debug view by clicking on the bug icon on the sidebar or pressing Ctrl + Shift + D (Cmd + Shift + D on macOS).
   
   

3. Click on the gear icon at the top of the Debug view and select “Open launch.json” from the dropdown menu. If you already have a launch.json file, skip this step.
   
   

4. In the launch.json file, you’ll define your debug configurations. For a multi-file program based on CMake, you can use the following configuration as a starting point:

    {
        "version": "0.2.0",
        "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "C++ Launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/build/your_executable_name", // Update with your actual executable name
            "args": ["<", "3.in"], // Arguments passed
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "/usr/bin/gdb" // Update with your GDB path
        }
        ]
    }
   

   Make sure to replace your_executable_name with the actual name of the executable produced by your CMake build.
   
   

5. Save the launch.json file.
   
   

6. Next, you need to configure the build task. Click on the gear icon again in the Debug view and select “Tasks: Configure Task” from the dropdown menu. This will create or open the tasks.json file.
   
   

7. In the tasks.json file, you’ll define the build task for CMake. Add the following configuration:

    {
        "version": "2.0.0",
        "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "build",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "cmake --build build", // Update with your CMake build directory if different, 
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}" // Build result directory, it should be the place where CMakeList.txt is
            },        
            "group": {
            "kind": "build",
            "isDefault": true
            },
            "presentation": {
            "reveal": "always"
            },
            "problemMatcher": "$gcc"
        }
        ]
    }
   

   Make sure to adjust the command field if your CMake build directory is different from "build".
   
   

8. Save the tasks.json file.
   
   

9. Now you can entry the debug mode with following command:

   • Build: Ctrl+Shift+B
   • Launch: Ctrl+F5

When the debug mode is running, you will see a series of instructions at the top, according to which you can step through the code, step into the function, etc.

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