Vscode-cpptools: Unable to start debugging: Program path is missing or invalid.

[thndrwrks]

I am having difficulty debugging C code with vs-code. I previously had it working but maybe an update has killed it. I am at a loss for how to fix the issue and any guidance would be appreciated. The specific error I get when trying to start debugging is: "Unable to start debugging. Program path [${workspaceRoot}\Debug\bin\main.exe] is missing or invalid."

My folder is a simple helloworld program with a main.c and a makefile. Here is a snapshot of the folder:
helloworld.zip

I am trying to debug on a Windows 10 machine. I have MinGW and LLVM installed (because clang is awesome). MinGW is installed using the MinGW Installation Manager. mingw32-base is version 2013072200. msys-base is version 2013072300.

Running clang --version in a PowerShell instance returns:

clang version 4.0.1 (tags/RELEASE_401/final)
Target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
Thread model: posix
InstalledDir: C:\llvm\bin

Here is the listing of the relevant files in the folder:

main.c

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello world!\n");

    printf("Press enter to quit...\n");
    getchar();

    return 0;
}

makefile

SOURCES = main.c

.PHONY: debug

debug: Debug/bin/main.exe

Debug/bin/main.exe: $(SOURCES:%.c=Debug/obj/%.o)
    clang -Wall $^ -o $@

Debug/obj/%.o: %.c | Debug
    clang -c -g $< -MMD -MP -o $@ -Wall -pedantic -MF Debug/depends/$(@F:.o=.d)

main.o: main.c

Debug:
    -mkdir Debug
    -mkdir Debug/bin
    -mkdir Debug/depends
    -mkdir Debug/obj

clean:
    rm -rf Debug
    rm -rf Release

.vscode/launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "(gdb) Launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceRoot}/Debug/bin/main.exe",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": true,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "C:/MinGW/bin/gdb.exe",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

.vscode/tasks.json

{
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "taskName": "Build",
            "command": "make",
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "type": "shell"
        }
    ]
}

[pieandcakes]

@thndrwrks If the error message you entered is exactly what you get:

>Unable to start debugging. Program path [$(workspaceRoot\Debug\bin\main.exe] is missing or invalid."

this tells me that the variable ${workspaceRoot} is not specified correctly and hasn't been resolved. If you fix it, that should fix your problem.

from the looks of your copied launch.json it seems correct so I don't know where that error message is coming from.

[pieandcakes]

@thndrwrks Also, should clang compiled binaries be debuggable with MinGW gdb? You'll have to figure that out too.

[thndrwrks]

@pieandcakes I've figured it out (partially). To answer your first question, the error message has ${workspaceRoot} correctly expanded. The error message is actually of the form C:\my\workspace\path\Debug\bin\main. The path is not the problem.

I was able to fix the error message by switching to mingw64:

"miDebuggerPath": "C:/mingw64/bin/gdb.exe",

I also switched compilers to gcc and I can now debug my program. Debugging programs compiled with clang in MinGW64 gdb doesn't appear to work at the moment (but the program launches successfully). At least I can debug with gcc.