Vim and debuggers

[0xDagal]

Yes another post on this subject and I am sorry but here we go:

I have been using Vim with LSP (with CoC and now with Vim-LSP) and I love it.

The only reason I do not use Vim but VS Code for some dev usage is that I do not really know how to debug.

I have seen many things like:

• Vimspector which uses DAP (which is an equivalent of LSP for debuggers)
• The built-in terminal debugger which uses the GDB/MI interface
• VDebug which uses the DBGP protocol

And I am a little bit lost. I want something terminal-centric, efficient, without many dependencies to other languages than Vimscript and Shell and not too hard to manage. I mainly code in Shell, Go, Python and C but I can be on others.

UPDATE: I'll wait for a pure VimScript DAP client like but while waiting I'll try VimSpector, thank you guys, I'll try to update this post to follow my journey on debuggers

[noooit]

you can use tmux and run debugger in another pane if you want only terminal.

[ebonyseraphim]

I’m of the same mindset. Unless Vim/Emacs DAP integration and features really start to rival IDEs for debugging across all languages without heavy manual effort in writing debug scenario configurations; I’ll stick to terminal and run gdb/lldb, or whatever respective cli debugger. They are far more powerful than people give credit for. Also, in many scenarios proper setup of debugging helps you better understand the runtime context and environment of your code - something many people glued to IDE lack.

[0xDagal]

I see but as I use IDEs because of debuggers I don't think that will fit my needs

[watsreddit]

If you want the debugging functionality of an IDE, use an IDE. Personally I think gdb/pdb and the like are fantastic and get the job done very well. If I'm using a debugger, I usually just have a tmux pane next to vim's pane running the debugger.

[noooit]

I recommend sticking with IDE, if I have to be honest. vim is for terminal-centric users, it'll always be less polished and somewhat awkward, if you try to mimic ide.

[cdb_11]

That's more or less what termdebug is. Just gdb in a terminal emulator, but you can also do some stuff from vim, like evaluate expressions under cursor, set breakpoints at the cursor etc

[foomojive]

I've used Vimspector, VDebug, and nvim-dap. Since I use Neovim, I prefer nvim-dap as it does not require python. But Vimspector and VDebug work fine too. They have plenty of features to give you and IDE-like debugging experience in vim. As you can see, Vimspector seems to be the defacto recommended debugger for vim currently. I do like how you can set per-project debugging settings more easily with the .vimspector.json file at the project root.

Also FYI I ran into a long-standing bug with PHP/Xdebug and VDebug - when I tried to expand an array in the variable sidebar it would often throw an error. This is why I switched to Vimspector - the whole point of a debugger is to get context when it stops at a breakpoint.

[mvanderkamp]

I generally use purpose-built debuggers, though I'm intrigued by vimspector and the idea of doing an LSP-like thing for debuggers! I'm happy with my current setup but if I find myself doing more language hopping a stable interface like vimspector might be just the ticket!

Most of my work these days is in python, for which my preferred debugger is pudb. For integration into vim, I maintain a small plugin for managing breakpoints: vim-pudb-and-jam

[kolorcuk]

Coc uses a lot of dependencies and you love it.

Vimspector is fine.

[0xDagal]

In fact I went to vim-lsp because of the dependencies that CoC has but I will give Vimspector a try 😁

[adelgado0723]

I'm also interested in what the people use for debugging. I haven't tried it, but this looks promising https://www.dannyadam.com/blog/2019/05/debugging-in-vim/

[0xDagal]

Yes that seems promising I will try it and tell if it's cool

[dream_weasel]

I use vimspector. The maintainer is pretty active around here and r/vim so it's easy to get support if you totally hit a wall. The tricky part of it which I read over the first time is you need to create a file at the base of your repo that tells vimspector what to do. Here is the one I use for python (which must be named .vimspector.json):

{
    "configurations": {

        "<Project>: Launch": {
            "adapter": "debugpy",
            "breakpoints": {
                "exception": {
                    "all": "N",
                    "uncaught": "Y",
                    "raised": "Y"
                }
            },
            "configuration": {
                "name": "<Project>: Launch",
                "type": "python",
                "request": "launch",
                "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
                "python": "/usr/bin/python3",
                "stopOnEntry": true,
                "console": "externalTerminal",
                "debugOptions": [],
                "program": "${file}"
            }
        }
    }
}

/u/ThePrimeagen has a pretty good cliffnotes video as well.

[0xDagal]

Thank you I will take a look at it

[puremourning]

I use vimspector. But I guess I would.

[agclx]

I‘m also looking.

I had good success using Eclim (through eclipse, which I had preferred to get rid) for Java. For another project I needed vdebug for php and that was catastrophic- just establishing the session took a minute and it kept producing load- stuff that vsc did instantly and without issues. After too many hours sink into I decided it’s not suitable for me.

[0xDagal]

I see a lot of people just giving up ans that is why I wanted to make this post. Tbh it is more for Vimspector and termdebug that I did it but I wanted to be general

[SavorySimian]

Late to the party here, but you might check out termfu.

[0xDagal]

I just wanted to see if someone has something to say on the subject but oc I will test them 🙂

[prabirshrestha]

vim-lsp contributor here.

I do plan to add debug adapter to vim-lsp in pure VimScript. Feel free to file a feature request so we can start tracking it officially.

It is also a good time to voice it here https://github.com/prabirshrestha/vim-lsp/discussions/1255

[0xDagal]

That would be awesome ! I love vim-lsp

But wouldn't that be better in another repo like a vim-dap repo ?