launch arbitrary program from launch.json

[xenoterracide]

Goal: run npx program so that we don't have to know the absolute paath inside of ${workspace}/node_modules problem: there is no way to know where npx is installed`

solution 1: add some local file (that can be ignored), that allows variables to be set for launch.json, then you could easily set ${usrLocal}/npx

solution 2: allow executing env or which or even just searching $PATH

solution 3: specifically add an option to node that is autodetected, ${npx} program

solution 1 is probably the most flexible, and most secure

[IllusionMH]

I think it's already possible similar to debugging npm scripts. Starting from default config Node.js: Launch via NPM and then using "runtimeExecutable": "npx" and "runtimeArgs": ["program"]

However it might take a bit extra to pass debug argument to node (and requires npx 9.1.0+) See zkat/npx#68

So most likely it should be

{
    "type": "node",
    "name": "Launch via npx",
    "port": 9449,
    "request": "launch",
    "runtimeArgs": [
        "--node-arg=--inspect-brk=9449",
        "program"
    ],
    "runtimeExecutable": "npx",
    "outputCapture": "std"
}

(unable to test debugging because my npx version doesn't support this flag, but it downloads and correctly uses typescript to output version or run --init with "runtimeArgs": ["typescript", "--init"])

[xenoterracide]

I'm not sure if in some cases the --inspect-brk is needed, but that caused it to blow up for me (oh maybe it's because I forgot "port"). this however worked just fine

    "runtimeArgs": [
        "mocha"
      ],
      "outputCapture": "std",
      "runtimeExecutable": "npx",
      "args": [

thanks. I guess I'll close this, unless it should be in an example doc somewhere, then feel free to reopen.