Unexpected GDB output from command "-interpreter-exec console

[EricGT]

• Your Windows build number:

Version 10.0.15063

• What you're doing and what's happening:

Running first example from Visual C++ for Linux Development

#include <cstdio>

int main()
{
    printf("hello from WSL_example_01!\n");
    return 0;
}

Pressing F5

• What's wrong:

Received error message:

Unable to start debugging.
Unexpected GDB output from command "-interpreter-exec console "target remote localhost:5785"".
Remote connection closed.

• What should be happening instead:

Normally with a Windows build on a Windows machine the Windows source code is checked to see if any changes have been made and if changes have been made a build is started.

With Visual C++ for Linux Development the Windows source code checks to see if any changes have occurred, and should also check that the Linux copy is in sync with the Windows source code. The problem is that Visual C++ for Linux Development does NOT also check that the Linux copy is in sync with the Windows source code.

How I ran across this problem was that the example ran cleanly when running with Ubuntu 14.04. Then I did a full uninstall using lxrun /uninstall /full and then a clean install for Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS, installing packages such as build-essentials, gdbserver, ssh, etc. I did NOT copy the Windows source code to WSL. After this I when back to my normal routine. When working with the example again I naturally pressed F5 and expected it to compile if necessary and run, but instead received the error message.

Related SO question with my answer.

Workaround:

Using Visual Studio menu: Build -> Rebuild Solution
This will force the Windows source code to be copied to WSL and then the Linux executable should be created for GDB to find.

I know this is probably not group for this issue, but this is probably the group most likely to run into this problem at this time.

I also did a search for the error message in the issues and found none. If this is a duplicate issue, my apologies.

Again, my complements and thanks to all the groups working to make WSL successful.

[therealkenc]

This is spiritually the equivalent of: "If you scp a file from box A to box B, box A doesn't notice the changes on B". So, yeah...

The Big Fix™ is going to be Visual Studio not copying the files in the first place. You can vote for that here.

If you are into this sort of thing, vscode-cpptools also recently added support for WSL. All pretty cool stuff.

[Zedonboy]

Hello, i tried rebuilding it gives me this error

Exception occured
while copying
sources to remote
machine-illegal characters
in path

how do i go about this?

[benhillis]

What do they mean by illegal characters? The error is probably due to the windows paths in the $PATH variable, however spaces and parens aren't illegal path characters on Linux just uncommon.

[Zedonboy]

so where should i be changing PATH variables. at my project proprties am seeing lots of things that can be change. can you hint me want i should do please?

[Zedonboy]

well change the remote project directory to '/projects'................
now this error 'cannot create directory mkdir error'

[therealkenc]

The question in the OP would best be addressed in the Visual Studio For Linux community here. The system does work (to a first order ) with WSL as it does with Real Linux. Ref #2505.