Unable to setup C++ debugging in VSCode; Debug type not recognized

Question

I'm trying to set up VSCode to start learning C++. As part of this, I need to be able to debug the code, so I've installed the C/C++ extension with the .vsix file to allow it to add C++ debugging configurations. However, when I try to set up a configuration, I do not see C++ as an option for environments; only node, gdb, and lldb. Following the instructions here, I do not see any suggestions for C++ in the command palette. As such, I manually setup the tasks, c_cpp_properties, and launch.json files, copying and pasting and modifying the paths as appropriate. However, VSCode labels cppdbg in launch.json as not recognized as a debug type, as well as the fields stopAtEntry, environments, MIMode, and miDebuggerPath as "Property <...> not allowed". If I change it to gdb, it recognizes the debug type, but the property not allowed error remains:

c_cpp_properties.json:

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": "Win32",
      "includePath": ["${workspaceFolder}/**", "${vcpkgRoot}/x86-windows/include"],
      "defines": ["_DEBUG", "UNICODE", "_UNICODE"],
      "windowsSdkVersion": "10.0.17763.0",
      "compilerPath": "C:\\dev\\tools\\mingw64\\bin\\g++.exe",
      "cStandard": "c11",
      "cppStandard": "c++17",
      "intelliSenseMode": "${default}"
    }
  ],
  "version": 4
}

tasks.json:

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
      {
        "label": "build hello world",
        "type": "shell",
        "command": "g++",
        "args": ["test.cpp"],
        "group": {
          "kind": "build",
          "isDefault": true
        }
      }
    ]
  }

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": "${workspaceFolder}/test.exe",
        "args": [],
        "stopAtEntry": true,
        "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
        "environment": [],
        "console": true,
        "MIMode": "gdb",
        "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\dev\\tools\\mingw64\\bin\\gdb.exe"
      }
    ]
  }

The version of VSCode I'm using is older, 1.19. The HelloWorld/test.cpp file I wrote the code to is extremely simple:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main()
{
    std::cout << "Type your name" << std::endl;
    std::string name;
    std::cin >> name;
    std::cout << "Hello, " << name << std::endl;

    return 0;
}

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing in this process, as I've not been able to find anything on google so far.

Answer 1

In my case, I hadn't installed Microsoft C/C++ extension in vscode. I use docker container for development and I needed to install this extension after attaching to my docker container.

Answer 2

I had that same error message, turns out I had two different configurations listed within my launch.json file. I assumed I'd just pick one during the run cycle and things would just work. Turns out I had to remark out the unused launch configuration to get rid of the error message. (gdb) Launch was fine, remark out the entire Linux version lldb