A debugger for .NET C#

[ccidral]

I couldn't find a C# debugger for Zed, maybe I missed something so before I open a issue I think it's better to open a discussion first.

Ever since I migrated from vscode to nvim the only missing piece for me is a decent C# debugger in nvim. Yes there is debugging support for that in nvim but it's kind of clunky, so whenever I need to use a debugger I have to open vscode. And since I've been trying to migrate from nvim to Zed, a debugger is also an important piece that's missing. How hard would it be to implement a debugger for .NET/C# in Zed?

[nilzzzzzz]

@ccidral you can use the debugger with c#, you just need to use netcoredbg . Works well for me.

[abdulkareemnalband]

Can you show me an example configuration in .zed/debug.json preferably for asp.net

[nilzzzzzz]

debug.json
[ { "label": "Launch Core Service (with build)", "adapter": "netcoredbg", "request": "launch", "preLaunchTask": "build", "program": "/Users/xxx/Repositories/axxx/services/xxx/service/bin/Debug/net9.0/service.dll", "cwd": "/Users/xxx/Repositories/xxx/services/xxx/service", "env": { "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development" } } ]

tasks.json
[ { "label": "build", "command": "dotnet", "args": ["build", "/Users/xxx/Repositories/xxx/services/xxx/service/service.csproj"] } ]

[Nulifyer]

downloaded netcoredbg.exe x64 zip.

netcoredbg --version
NET Core debugger 3.1.2-1 (83214c3, Release)

settings.json

{
  "dap": {
    "netcoredbg": {
      "binary": "C:/Users/MyUser/.netcoredbg/netcoredbg.exe",
      "args": ["--interpreter=vscode"]
    }
  }
}

The tasks works when run directly through Zed.

tasks.json

[
  {
    "label": "build",
    "command": "dotnet",
    "show_command": true,
    "args": ["build"],
    "cwd": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT"
  }
]

debug.json

[
  {
    "adapter": "netcoredbg",
    "label": "DotnetHelloWorld - Debug",
    "request": "launch",
    "program": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT/bin/Debug/net9.0/DotnetHelloWorld.dll",
    "args": [],
    "stopOnEntry": false,
    "cwd": "$ZED_WORKTREE_ROOT"
  }
]

But doesn't show when I press F5 to start debug.

[nilzzzzzz]

Sounds strange, even when debugging does not work at the end, the menu should always show up with the content which you defined in the debug json..

[GOSCHEN]

@Nulifyer

{
  "dap": {
    "netcoredbg": {
      "binary": "C:/Users/MyUser/.netcoredbg/netcoredbg.exe",
      "args": ["--interpreter=vscode"]
    }
  }
}

I think defining new adapters like you (and me) did, is not supported at the moment. If, for example, you change the adapter to “codelldb,” the entry from the .debug.json file appears. I think we'll have to be patient a little longer.

Can't imagine how @nilzzzzzz did it.

cheers

[meszolym]

How much longer though...

[Nulifyer]

https://github.com/qwadrox/zed-netcoredbg?tab=readme-ov-file

I got it working by installing this as a Dev extension and creating the debug.json.

You need to be able to got clone the above and run cargo up to compile for zed to install it.

Then you can use netcoredbg.

[GOSCHEN]

Already found this in the mean time.

Sadly i'm on windows

[Nulifyer]

So am I. Win 11.

[GOSCHEN]

So we need to be patient until netcoredbg receives the update.

[Nulifyer]

https://github.com/marcptrs/netcoredbg/releases

With patch

[Nulifyer]

It will be great if we can get debugger in the native extension soon.

[1925381584]

does it support windows now?

[Nulifyer]

Zed released a windows version.

Dotnet debugging requires some extra work right now.

[dlwiii]

FYI I got zed working and debugging my really large C# project with breakpoints and variables and expressions. This is really most of what I need. Not really missing VS Code so far!

[dlwiii]

I dont need that but sure would like the ability to in the evaluator call linq expressions like:

items.Where( item.id==12345)
That is the main thing I find missing right now. And understand netcoredbg does not support this. Yet?

[RandyPJ]

How did you got it working?

[chances]

How did you setup your debug.json?

[Desalutar20]

FYI I got zed working and debugging my really large C# project with breakpoints and variables and expressions. This is really most of what I need. Not really missing VS Code so far!

Please let us know how you set this up

[saulin18]

FYI I got zed working and debugging my really large C# project with breakpoints and variables and expressions. This is really most of what I need. Not really missing VS Code so far!

How did you do it?

[Nulifyer]

To all, generally it seems possible to get C# code debugging. However, dotnet as a whole (cshtml, etc) is not a first class citizen yet.
I won't be switching or putting more time into for now, but months back when I first was looking into it I was able to get the C# code debugging and other have it working too.
This doesn't account for many other things like dotnet source code viewing, syntax highlighting, completions, etc that we are used to in vscode.
Hopefully, the zed team deems it worth their time to make dotnet feature parody woth vscode, I would happily switch to the editor given vscodes bloat.

[nmannaii]

I made a proxy that let's Zed editor debug .Net application using the vsdbg (The command-line visual studio debugger used by tools like Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio to debug .NET). You can check it out if you want it's simple to use and install and it has zero npm dependencies.
https://github.com/nmannaii/vsdbg-zed.

[abdulkareemnalband]

link is broken

[nmannaii]

Yes mb, i fixed it