[SOLVED] Remote debugging with VS Code on Windows to a Raspberry Pi

Issue

I need help to setup my vscode in order to deploy and debug a dotnet application on my RPi 4 (Raspberry Pi OS x64), because I'm not able to attach the vscode debugger.

The application is correctly built and deployed on my RPi, and I can run it via ssh using the command dotnet ~/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp.dll, but when I try to run it using the debugging function of vscode it returns the following error:

Could not execute because the specified command or file was not found.
Possible reasons for this include:
  * You misspelled a built-in dotnet command.
  * You intended to execute a .NET program, but dotnet-~/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp.dll does not exist.
  * You intended to run a global tool, but a dotnet-prefixed executable with this name could not be found on the PATH.

Here all the files:

• MyFirstApp.cs

  Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
  

• MyFirstApp.csproj

  <Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <PropertyGroup>
      <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
      <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
      <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
      <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    </PropertyGroup>
  </Project>
  

• .vscode/launch.json

  {
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": ".NET Core Launch (remote)",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "preLaunchTask": "RaspberryPiDeploy",
            "program": "~/.dotnet/dotnet",
            "args": ["~/${workspaceFolderBasename}/${workspaceFolderBasename}.dll"],
            "cwd": "~/${workspaceFolderBasename}",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "pipeTransport": {
                "pipeCwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
                "pipeProgram": "ssh",
                "pipeArgs": [
                    "[email protected]"
                ],
                "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
        }
    ]
  }
  

• .vscode/tasks.json

  {
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "build",
            "command": "dotnet",
            "type": "process",
            "args": [
                "build",
                "${workspaceFolder}/MyFirstApp.csproj",
                "/property:GenerateFullPaths=true",
                "/consoleloggerparameters:NoSummary"
            ],
            "problemMatcher": "$msCompile"
        },
        {
            "label": "RaspberryPiPublish",
            "command": "sh",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "build",
            "windows": {
                "command": "cmd",
                "args": [
                    "/c",
                    "\"dotnet publish -r linux-arm64 -o bin\\linux-arm64\\publish --no-self-contained\""
                ],
                "problemMatcher": []
            }
  
        },
        {
            "label": "RaspberryPiDeploy",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "RaspberryPiPublish",
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "always",
                "panel": "new",
                "close": true
            },
            "windows": {
                "command": "scp -r bin\\linux-arm64\\publish\\* [email protected]:${workspaceFolderBasename}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": []
        }
    ]
  }
  

Solution

It is possible to apply two different types of build: Self-contained and Framework-dependent.

1. The Self-contained build requires to run chmod +x on MyFirstApp (thanks to @PMF's suggestion):

   • launch.json

     {
            "name": ".NET Remote Launch - Self-contained",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "preLaunchTask": "RaspberryPiDeploySelfContained",
            "program": "~/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp",
            "args": [],
            "cwd": "~/MyFirstApp",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "pipeTransport": {
                "pipeCwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
                "pipeProgram": "ssh",
                "pipeArgs": [
                    "[email protected]"
                ],
                "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
     }
     

   • tasks.json

     {
            "label": "RaspberryPiPublishSelfContained",
            "command": "sh",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "build",
            "windows": {
                "command": "cmd",
                "args": [
                    "/c",
                    "\"dotnet publish -r linux-arm64 -o bin\\linux-arm64\\publish\""
                ],
                "problemMatcher": []
            }
     
        },
        {
            "label": "RaspberryPiDeploySelfContained",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "RaspberryPiPublishSelfContained",
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "always",
                "panel": "new",
                "close": true
            },
            "windows": {
                "command": "scp -r bin\\linux-arm64\\publish\\* [email protected]:${workspaceFolderBasename}; ssh [email protected] chmod +x \"${workspaceFolderBasename}/${workspaceFolderBasename}\""
            },
            "problemMatcher": []
     }
     

   This solution works, but, considering that it is a "self-contained" app, it requires more time to copy all the dependencies and requires more disk space.

2. The Framework-dependent solution requires to copy fewer files (less time and disk space to deploy and test it):

   • launch.json: I had to setup the args field providing the path as /home/pi/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp.dll, I can't figure out why, but giving the path as ~/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp.dll gives back the error Could not execute because the specified command or file was not found.

     {
            "name": ".NET Remote Launch - Framework-dependent",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "preLaunchTask": "RaspberryPiDeploy",
            "program": "~/.dotnet/dotnet",
            "args": ["/home/pi/MyFirstApp/MyFirstApp.dll"],
            "cwd": "~/MyFirstApp",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "pipeTransport": {
                "pipeCwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
                "pipeProgram": "ssh",
                "pipeArgs": [
                    "[email protected]"
                ],
                "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
     }
     

   • tasks.json

     {
            "label": "RaspberryPiPublish",
            "command": "sh",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "build",
            "windows": {
                "command": "cmd",
                "args": [
                    "/c",
                    "\"dotnet publish -r linux-arm64 -o bin\\linux-arm64\\publish --no-self-contained\""
                ],
                "problemMatcher": []
            }
        },
        {
            "label": "RaspberryPiDeploy",
            "type": "shell",
            "dependsOn": "RaspberryPiPublish",
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "always",
                "panel": "new",
                "close": true
            },
            "windows": {
                "command": "scp -r bin\\linux-arm64\\publish\\* [email protected]:\"~/${workspaceFolderBasename}\""
            },
            "problemMatcher": []
     }
     

Answered By - gpare

Answer Checked By - Gilberto Lyons (WPSolving Admin)