How can I run ROS2 nodes in a debugger (e.g. gdb)?

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Hi, I find a method to debug a C++ node usign VSCode on ROS2 Foxy (Ubuntu).

1) Compile your C++ package with the symbols:

colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo

2) Run the GDB Server in a localhost:port

ros2 run --prefix 'gdbserver localhost:3000' package_name executable_name

3) Open VSCode on your workspace, open the debug section (side bar) and create new launch.json configuration file for debugging. Configure as follow:

    {
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "C++ Debugger",
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "miDebuggerServerAddress": "localhost:3000",
            "cwd": "/",
            "program": "[build-path-executable]"
        }
    ]
}

Change [build-path-executable] by your executable build file. You can find this path on the console when you launch the server.

4) Run the debugger and use VSCode to debug your code.

Here is a more detail explanation https://gist.github.com/JADC362/a4425...

There is not an option like that. You can just run the binary directly from its location in gdb <install_prefix>/lib/<package_name>/<executable_name>. You can open an issue or pull request on ros2 run to make this case better:

https://github.com/ros2/ros2cli

Had some issues getting gdb running on Mac, so had to use LLDB instead:

Make sure to build with debugging symbols. colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo

Further you can start your node by referencing the executables directly (in this case my packages is called arke_base): lldb -f arke_base/install/arke_base/lib/arke_base/arke_hardware_interface_node -- --ros-args --params-file arke_base/config/arke_diff_drive_controller.yaml

The command also shows arguments added, in this case a config file.