I added this revision to the question:
How might I debug this situation to figure out the problem?
I have a project that is set up to use Remote Debugging.
I configured it so I can start debugging remotely (instead of attaching to an already running program).
When I run it in the debugger, it works fine. I am sure of this because it shows a progress bar that fills up for about a minute as it is running.
But if I run it from a CMD shell on the remote machine it fails instantly with a windows pop up saying that my program has stopped working.
What could be different that would make it work with a debugger and fail without.
Also note that I put a while loop with a sleep in it so that I could run it, attach to it, then change a value in the debugger to let it run past that. BUT when I run it from the command line it exits before it hits that loop, so I cannot attach the debugger to it.
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I would like to debug a C++ program in VSCode. The problem is this program is run as part of a large and messy build system that spawns many processes and prepares input for the program. In other words if I run:
./do the_task
It will compile a load of C++, generate some input and eventually - through several layers of Bash, Python and Makefiles - run something like this:
/very/long/path/to/the_task --lots --of --arguments /very/long/path/to/generated_input.xml
I'd like to debug that process using VSCode/GDB, in such a way that I can
Set breakpoints in the_task.cpp
Just click "Start debugging" with the launch.json set to run do the_task
Unfortunately that doesn't work because by default GDB doesn't follow child processes. You can tell it to but then it will halt the parent process so that only a single process runs at a time. That causes everything to get stuck at some point in my case.
Some ideas I've had:
Is there a way to tell GDB to run a script when a new inferior (process) starts, check the executable name and then detach from the child if it doesn't match?
I could create a proxy GDB/MI wrapper that pretends to VSCode that the program has been started (so the connection doesn't time out), and then when we get to running /very/long/path/to/the_task prefix it with gdb --interpreter=mi and forward on all of the cached commands (to set breakpoints etc.) This seems like quite a lot of work and quite hacky so I'm not sure I like it.
Prefix /very/long/path/to/the_task with gdbserver. Then I can connect to it from VSCode. This is definitely the simplest and most obvious solution but the UX sucks - you have to manually start the command, then wait, then click "start debugging". Plus you're inevitably going to run into port reuse annoyances.
3, but write a custom VSCode extension that automatically starts debugging when it detects gdbserver has started. I've done this for Python debugging so it does work but there are some minor annoyances (e.g. if you restart VSCode and it restores a terminal session it doesn't work). Also it's a fair amount of work.
Is there an obvious solution I'm missing?
I'm trying to debug a program using a different user then my own in order to have special permissions. I'm using the Start External Program functionality in order to start runas.exe.
This part goes well and I can start the program successfully, however the program will not stop at any of my breakpoints in the code, even though it is supposed to be running in debug mode. The breakpoints work fine when I run the program normally as my own user. Does anybody have any ideas why this is not working?
My configuration:
We're having a very strange behaviour that I'm unable to identify a root cause for. We use TFS (2017.U2) to compile our legacy system, and are trying to update our build farm from 2008R2 up to 2016. The build system uses PowerShell (v5) to cycle through a list of VBP projects and run a VBS script to compile the projects.
First a bit of basics. UAC is totally disabled (in the registry, not just the slider control), VB6.EXE is also set to XP SP3 compatability, and also to run as the administrator.
Unfortunately, while we can see VB6.EXE start in task manager - it just hangs. Zero activity. Running the same compile interactively works just fine with the same user. This led me to theorize it was an environment problem, however process explorer shows me a valid user environment on the VB6.EXE process.
I don't believe this is due to VB6 throwing an error, as (at least in previous versions of Windows Server) when a background process opens a UI element, the OS indicates to the foreground that the background wants to break in. We dont see that.
We've stubbed this back to a bare minimum code example which I call "test.ps1":
$vb6="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98\vb6.exe"
Set-Location D:\Builds\27\s\path\prjdir
start-process $vb6 -ArgumentList "/make /out errors.txt project.vbp" -wait
We've been using "start-process" to trigger the VB6 compiles because direct invokation via PowerShell doesn't ingest the parameters properly (they're actually built out of strings passed into the master script in the full blown process... this is the simplified version).
When run interactively (.\test.ps1) this functions properly. The project compiled and I get an errors.txt file written.
When started as a process (start-process .\test.ps1) this again functions properly.
When triggered via a TFS "PowerShell Script" task, this fails to complete the VB6 step - the VB6.EXE can be seen in the Task viewer with the appropriate arguments, and no CPU or IO is associated with the task. No errors.txt file is written. No new DLL is created.
I was able to dummy this down even further and remove TFS from the stack by running the test script from another machine. I ran a remote invokation of the script, and duplicated the result using this command:
PS C:\Users\svc_build> Invoke-Command –ComputerName TestBuild02 –ScriptBlock {powershell C:\Users\svc_build\desktop\test.ps1 }
Again, no errors.txt, and no new DLL. VB6.EXE starts up and just sits there. Process monitor doesnt provide any help in diagnosing what might be the issue.
This now smells of a security door being shut on me - even though the same domain user is running the same job, the difference is that this is a background process... and something is preventing a background process of executing in the same context as a foreground process.
Assuming this assumption is correct, can someone point me at the reason a remotely triggered (background) session isn't able to run VB6.EXE? (and of course, a work around for the situation would be appreciated :) )
If this is not a security issue - can someone identify the real culprit, and the solution to getting VB6 running as a background process, like we're used to seeing it run on W2K8R2?
I'm a bit late to the party, but this sounds like a very similar scenario to what I've just encountered.
Windows 10 v2004
UAC disabled
Compiling by running VB6.exe via a PowerShell script.
Using Bamboo as the build server, running as a Managed Service Account.
When running the build on the server via Bamboo, it hangs. When logging into the build server and running the build manually, it succeeded.
After cutting down the code I was able to reproduce a minimal failing case. The hang was caused by code in a UserControl's UserControl_Initialize method that was manipulating UI controls, but only when that UserControl was placed on a Form in the same project.
During compilation, the compiler will create an instance of the Form (why, I don't know), which in turn creates an instance of the UserControl, which in turn runs the UserControl_Initialize method. I can only assume that running the code at that point resulted in an error of some sort, and that resulted in the compiler hanging.
The same error can be caused by the UserControl_Resize event. That case is reasonably easy to fix by checking if Ambient.UserMode is true before trying to resize the child controls.
Private Sub UserControl_Resize()
If UserControl.Ambient.UserMode Then
' Position the child controls
End If
End Sub
Fixing the UserControl_Initialize methods required the code in those methods to be run at a different point (for example, when the UserControl is given the data to display, we now run the code that was previously in UserControl_Initialize).
Also worth noting is the compatibility settings for VB6.exe that we had to use. Using "Windows XP SP3" compatibility mode resulted in VB6.exe hanging immediately. We had to set it to not use any compatibility mode, but we did have to set Run this program as an adminisrtator, and had that applying for all users.
I've been fighting this little problem for a while now, so I'm really hoping I can get some help. I've been looking for a solution to this, and I found this SO question: Debugging doesn't start.
My issue is somewhat similar to the issue discussed here, except that my issue is a two-parter.
Part 1: Similar to the issue discussed on the other question. (Debug Window Doesn't show up)
When I attempt to launch my Windows 32 console application project (The simple kind that opens in the windows CLI). The CLI (or CMD) window doesn't open, and windows idles giving me a spinning cursor wheel. Visual Studio IDE (I'm using VS 2013 Community) becomes unresponsive and I cannot access any menus, or use any hotkey to "Stop Debugging". One difference from the provided SO question though, is that when I try to launch "MyProject.exe" from my project's "Debug" folder I get the same result as attempting to debug in the IDE.
Part 2: Unkillable Process
When I try to close my debug application in the windows task manager, it is not listed as an ongoing process. However, whenever I try to manipulate, delete, or otherwise modify my Project.exe application (in my Project's "Debug" folder), windows informs me that the application is in use. Confused by this, I downloaded two applications. The first was Process explorer, which showed me that I did in fact have 2 instances of "MyProject.exe" running. The second was Process Hacker, which also showed me 2 instances of "MyProject.exe". However, neither of these programs were able to terminate either of the "MyProject.exe" processes.
I am capable of terminating the processes for visual studio and restarting the IDE, however, because the "MyProject.exe" processes are still running. Building always fails with the error
"Error 1 error LNK1168: cannot open C:\Users\Brandon\Desktop\MyProject\Debug\MyProject.exe for writing"
Whenever I restart my computer, the lock files (as expected) are removed, and the "MyProject.exe" processes disappear. I can restart VS and everything works, but if I try to Debug (pressing "Start Debugging" or F5) the same issue occurs.
A process of my program is started ("MyProject.exe"), but the CLI window where my program's text should appear doesn't show up. Visual studio locks up, and "MyProject.exe" persists until the next restart because "MyProcess.exe" cannot be terminated.
My solution configuration is set to "Debug", Solution Platforms = Win32.
I have tried creating a new blank console project in VS 2013 and I get the same result: code builds fine, but I have the same debugging issue. I get an identical result with a quickly assembled "Hello World" project.
Sorry for being a noob, but honestly. I really don't know what's going on, so any help is greatly appreciated.
(Note: Running Windows 10 with VS2013)
EDIT (UPDATE):
So, I'm having the same problem with several programs in Windows 10 (most notably Allegorithmic's Substance Painter). So it looks like this may actually be an OS problem. Several of my programs whenever I try to launch them do the same thing...the program acts like it's going to launch, but then no usable window appears. Looking at my processes I can see that the process has been started, but it is once again unkillable. For reference, I am using Windows 10 Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.17).
I believe your problem might be Avast, if you are running it. I had exactly the same issues until I uninstalled it. Had upgraded to Win10 and VS2013 just froze, same as you described.
Cheers.
I am having some problems with a app we are making with wxWidget/wxPython and PyInstaller.
We have compiled the app into a single exe for windows but:
1) On some machines it will not launch at all. It doesn't generate a error or anything in the app logs. It just stops almost immediately.
2) On some machines it will launch fine from cmd but not from explorer. again, same behavior. It just stops almost immediately. I don't even see it pop up in the process explorer.
3) On some machines it works just fine.
Are there any tips on how I can figure out what is going wrong? Is there a way to launch a exe with a debugger?
There are a few things you may want to look into:
Did you compile it as "one file"? I have heard that one exe may be blocked by some antivirus programs. It uses a few of hacks to get everything in one executable which may be considered malicious.
Did you compile it as Windows app (no console)? You may want to enable console and run it on machine where it does not run at all from console. That way you may see why it crashes.