VSCode debug cpp ROS node

edit

I had the same issue where my simple c++ code projects built with cmake works perfectly fine but not the same c++ file in catkin workspace which uses catkin_make. I had the executable run with out the errors but doesn't stop at my break points to debug my code. Later with the following changes in the launch.json and tasks.json, I could debug my executables(the ones I run using roslaunch or rosrun from terminal) in vscode effortlessly.

Please note to use the below fields correctly in respective json files as those commands are the ones that helps to pipe and enable the code with debugger in vscode and terminal.

*In launch.json--*

1. "preLaunchTask": "prerun"
2. "avoidWindowsConsoleRedirection": true
3. "stopAtEntry": false

In tasks.json --

1. in Prerun task a. "command": "source ./devel/setup.bash && export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311/ "
2. In build task a. "command": "catkin config --extend /opt/ros/kinetic && catkin build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE = Debug -j8"

The above changes would hopefully work for anyone struggling with a similar issue. The changes are considered to work assuming the ROS environment is setup with the required extensions and catkin_make is executed without any errors.

************** launch.json ***************

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "(gdb) launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/devel/lib/project_folder/executable_file",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "preLaunchTask": "prerun",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "targetArchitecture": "x64",
            "avoidWindowsConsoleRedirection": true,
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

***************** tasks.json ****************

    {
        // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
        // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
        "version": "2.0.0",
        "tasks": [
            {
                "label": "prerun",
                "type": "shell",
                "command": "source ./devel/setup.bash && export ROS_MASTER_URI=http://localhost:11311/ "
            },
            {
                "label": "build",
                "type": "shell",
                "command": "catkin config --extend /opt/ros/kinetic && catkin build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE = Debug -j8",
                "group": {
                    "kind": "build",
                    "isDefault": true
                },
                "problemMatcher": []
            },
            {
                "label": "clean",
                "type": "shell",
                "command": "catkin clean --yes"
            },
            {
                "label": "release",
                "type": "shell",
                "command": "sudo checkinstall --install=no catkin build -j4 --cmake--args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release"
            }
        ]

}

It literally says in the notes for that VS Code extension that breakpoints are not enabled when using Ros Launch or Ros Run.

If you are developing in C++ you can configure VS code to just use GDB: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/la...

I assume the same can be done for a python debugger but I have not done this.

For catkin tools package, this command also works:

catkin build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo