Debugger hangs starting gdb.exe on Windows 10 with UTF-8 enabled.

[weinand]

From @leoliuasia on February 7, 2018 6:6

• VSCode Version:1.19.3
• OS Version: Windows 10 Pro 1709 16299.214

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Debug->Start Debugging
2. Nothing happens.... just hang in there with little blue block progressbar scrolling...

But when I force end task for gdb.exe in task manager window, vscode shows up an error, and little blue block disappears.

c_cpp_properties.json:

{
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceRoot}",
                "C:\\MinGW\\lib\\gcc\\mingw32\\6.3.0\\include\\c++"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "_DEBUG",
                "UNICODE"
            ],
            "intelliSenseMode": "msvc-x64",
            "browse": {
                "path": [
                    "${workspaceRoot}",
                    "C:\\MinGW\\lib\\gcc\\mingw32\\6.3.0\\include\\c++"
                ],
                "limitSymbolsToIncludedHeaders": true,
                "databaseFilename": ""
            }
        }

task.json:

"tasks": [
        {
            "label": "build cpp",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "g++",
            "args": [
                "-g",
                "-o",
                "a.out",
                "main.cpp",
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            }
        }
    ]

launch.json

"configurations": [
        {
            "name": "(gdb) Launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}\\a.out",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": true,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\MinGW\\bin\\gdb.exe",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ]
        }
    ]

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#43075

[pieandcakes]

@leoliuasia Can you enable "logging": { "engineLogging": true } and see where it stops while communicating with gdb?

[leoliuasia]

@pieandcakes Thanks for your time! Below are the output informations from the DEBUG CONSOLE after logging enabled.

• 1: (267) LaunchOptions<LocalLaunchOptions xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/vstudio/MDDDebuggerOptions/2014'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions ExePath='c:\Users\Leo\Desktop\cpp\a.out'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions WorkingDirectory='c:\Users\Leo\Desktop\cpp'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions ExeArguments=''
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions MIMode='gdb'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions MIDebuggerPath='C:\MinGW\bin\gdb.exe'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions WaitDynamicLibLoad='false'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions ExternalConsole='true'
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions>
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions -enable-pretty-printing
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions
• 1: (283) LaunchOptions
• 1: (361) Starting: "C:\MinGW\bin\gdb.exe" --interpreter=mi
• 1: (1914) DebuggerPid=9076
• 1: (1982) ->=thread-group-added,id="i1"
• 1: (1983) ->~"GNU gdb (GDB) 7.6.1\n"
• 1: (1983) ->~"Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.\n"
• 1: (1983) ->~"License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\nThis is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.\nThere is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"\nand "show warranty" for details.\n"
• 1: (1983) ->~"This GDB was configured as "mingw32".\nFor bug reporting instructions, please see:\n"
• 1: (1983) ->~"http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/.\n"
• 1: (1983) ->(gdb)
• 1: (1992) <-1001-gdb-set target-async on
• 1: (1992) ->&"\357\273\2771001-gdb-set target-async on\n"
• 1: (1993) ->&"Undefined command: "\357". Try "help".\n"
• 1: (1993) ->^error,msg="Undefined command: "\357". Try "help"."
• 1: (1993) ->(gdb)
• 1: (1993) ->&"\n"
• 1: (1993) ->^done
• 1: (1993) ->(gdb)

[leoliuasia]

@pieandcakes When this kind of things happens, I think the "Stop Debugging" should also be working, but it does not. The whole debug process only can start again util reopen the vscode.

[pieandcakes]

@leoliuasia I don't know if you are using a different encoding, but for some reason gdb is receiving

1: (1992) <-1001-gdb-set target-async on
1: (1992) ->&"\357\273\2771001-gdb-set target-async on\n"
1: (1993) ->&"Undefined command: "\357". Try "help".\n"
1: (1993) ->^error,msg="Undefined command: "\357". Try "help"."

and the issue looks like ->&"\357\273\2771001-gdb-set target-async on\n" with the strangely escaped characters.

[WardenGnaw]

@leoliuasia Can you run reg query "hklm\system\controlset001\control\nls\language" /v Installlanguage? This will help us understand which language you have enabled on your OS for us to recreate the issue.

[leoliuasia]

@WardenGnaw Below is the output:

D:\Integration Projects>reg query "hklm\system\controlset001\control\nls\language" /v Installlanguage
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\controlset001\control\nls\language
Installlanguage REG_SZ 0409

[WardenGnaw]

Could you also share what CodePage your OS is running? You can find this out by building and running the attached project.

You can build and run this by installing dotnet core at https://www.microsoft.com/net/learn/get-started/windows. Then unzip that project and run dotnet build and dotnet run.

You should see something similar to Your code page is 437 but with a different number.

CheckCodePage.zip

[WardenGnaw]

Hi,

We may have a potential fix. Can you try installing this patched cpptools vsix and see if this fixes your issue?

cpptools.zip

Please uninstall the c/c++ extension that is already installed, then in the Extensions menu, click on the 3 dots and you should see install from vsix.

Thank you.

[bolu61]

@WardenGnaw I ran into the exact same issue. My code page is 65001. The potential fix does not work.
@pieandcakes I believe that \357\273\277 is a BOM indicating UTF-8 encoding?

[pieandcakes]

@MUTTSU which OS installation are you using? Please give the OS version and the locale that you installed so we can setup a proper test machine. We haven't been able to duplicate this issue here yet.

[bolu61]

Im using win10pro build 17093.1000 (though i had this issue with older builds). Locale is en_CA.

Also I was wondering when the extension starts gdb, where does "set target-async on" come from? I couldn't figure out where in the extension's code it tries to put these configurations.

[pieandcakes]

Do you have any additional language packs installed? are you using an input method other than English?