Enable Easier Debugging of Code Requiring Root

[sethRait]

Currently, if one needs to run code with superuser privileges, but edits it as a standard user, the debugging process is very convoluted. Since there is no way to specify "run delve as root" in the launch.json, here is what must be done currently:
Steps to Reproduce:

1. In launch.json, set request to "attach" and mode to "remote" and change the remotePath, host, port settings as required. Add a preLaunch task.
2. In tasks.json, create a new task which runs the command sudo /path/to/dlv debug --headless --log --listen=:<port> -- <args to program you want to debug>
3. Set "isBackground" to true
4. Create a problem matcher with a "background" property including a "beginsPattern" and an "endsPattern" so VSCode knows when it's okay to begin the debug session.

launch.json:

    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "launch",
            "type": "go",
            "request": "attach",
            "mode": "remote",
            "remotePath": "",
            "port": 2345,
            "host": "127.0.0.1",
            "showLog": true,
            "preLaunchTask": "startDelve"
        }]

tasks.json:

	"version": "2.0.0",
	"tasks": [{
		"label": "startDelve",
		"command": "cd /path/to/go/code/dir; sudo /path/to/dlv debug --api-version=2 --headless --listen=:2345 --log -- <args to go program>",
		"type": "shell",
		"isBackground": true,
		"problemMatcher": {
			"pattern": {
				"regexp": "Error: ([^(]+)\\((\\d+|\\d+,\\d+|\\d+,\\d+,\\d+,\\d+)\\): (.*)$",
				"file": 1,
				"location": 2,
				"message": 3
			},
			"background": {
				"beginsPattern": "API server listening",
				"endsPattern": "20"
			}
		}
	}]
}

Suggested workflow:

1. In launch.json, under the configuration you would like to run as root, add "runas": "root" or "root": true

[ramya-rao-a]

Can you try another workaround that involves setting the go.alternateTools setting?

• Write a script that internal calls delve with sudo and pass all the arguments as is
• Add the below to your settings

"go.alternateTools": {
    "dlv": "absolute path to your script"
}

This will make the extension call your script instead of dlv. And internally you can call dlv with sudo

[sethRait]

@ramya-rao-a this works perfectly! Thank you :D Is there a way this could be made more discoverable though?

[ramya-rao-a]

Not sure...
Maybe a section in the README or FAQs?

[jadarsie]

@ramya-rao-a do you expect this approach to work with the remote development extensions?

My use case is similar, I also need to run dlv as root. I can debug a project sitting on the server just fine, but my alternateTool is not being picked-up (I do not think so). Is there a log file I can inspect to confirm that?

This is my remote settings file.

me@remote:~$ cat ~/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json 
{
    "go.alternateTools": {
        "dlv": "dlvsu.sh" // this script calls: sudo -E dlv $@
    }
}

Remote host is an UbuntuServer 18.04
Am I missing anything?

[sethRait]

I am also now having trouble with this approach using the remote development extension. After enabling debug logs I can verify that my script specified using go.alternateTools is not even being called. i have verified that the setting is set on the remote machine and an absolute path to the script is given.

As a workaround, I moved the dlv binary to dlv.old then wrote a script in the same location as the dlv binary (calling it dlv) which calls sudo /path/to/dlv.old $@ but for obvious reasons, this is non-ideal.

[stamblerre]

This sounds like a duplicate of #2889 - please follow along with the discussion on that issue.

[stamblerre]

Duplicate of #2889