How to debug programs with "sudo" in VSCODE

Question

I am trying to debug a program in VSCODE. The program needs to be launched as root or with "sudo" on Ubuntu. What's the best way to achieve this? An example launch configuration would be helpful. Thanks.

Answer 1

I have been in a similar situation recently- I have solved it by adding {"sudo": true} in launch.json file under .vscode directory.

just added the following line in .vscode>launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "other..." : "configs...",
            "request": "launch",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "args": [
                "${file}"
            ],
            "sudo": true
        }
    ]
}

VS code version I'm using is -

Version: 1.49.1 OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 64-bit

This appears to not work on all languages. For me it worked for python 3.x Other users reported it doesn't work for C/C++.

Answer 2

I did the following:

1. create a script called "gdb" in e.g. my home directory, containing: pkexec /usr/bin/gdb "$@"
2. make it executable
3. modify the launch.json in VSCode to call the script (obviously change username accordingly) by adding "miDebuggerPath":

...
            "externalConsole": false,
            "miDebuggerPath": "/home/<username>/gdb",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
...

4. whilst debugging, use top or such like to verify the process is running as root.

That should be enough.