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Version: Torizon OS 7.x.y

Remote Deploy and Debug Projects

Introduction​

This article presents instructions on remotely deploying and debugging projects on your target device. With the Torizon IDE Extension, you can troubleshoot applications running on a SoM directly from your host machine by adding breakpoints to the source code in Visual Studio Code.

Starting a debugging session triggers some IDE extension tasks. Those tasks build and run the container application with configurations that enable remote debugging via SSH. We refer to this container as a "debug container". If you need a container built with only the essentials for the application - referred to as a "release container", see Build, Test and Push Applications for Production.

Prerequisites​

Remote Deploy and Debug​

  1. Check if the desired device is set as the default.

    To differentiate between the registered devices and the default device, look for the following highlighted icon:

  2. Check if the recommended extensions are installed: All templates include a file named .vscode/extensions.json, which specifies a list of recommended extensions for the project. These extensions commonly will add the LSP (language server protocol) support for the project language, syntax highlight, code formatting, debugger, etc.

    1. Open the Command Palette(Ctrl+Shift+P).

    2. Type Extensions: Show Recommended Extensions. Select it.

      It will open the Extensions menu and show the list of recommended extensions.

    3. Install all by clicking the Install Workspace Recommended Extensions icon.

  3. Start the debug session:

    1. Click the Run and Debug (Ctrl+Shift+D) icon in the VS Code left menu bar.

    2. Select the option that matches the architecture of your default target device:

      • Torizon ARMv8: for ARM 64-bit devices.
      • Torizon ARMv7: for ARM 32-bit devices.

    3. Click the Start Debugging icon (or press F5).

    info

    Once you have selected an architecture option, VS Code will use it as the default option for future debugging sessions. So, the next time you want to debug your project, just press F5 and VS Code will automatically start a debugging session for the last selected architecture.

    You can follow the build/deploy progress by looking at the VS Code window footer and task tabs, as the following image highlights.

    Wait for the process completion. The VS Code will automatically change to the Debug Console tab, which should have the output logs of the debugger and application.

    Warning

    It may take a while to build the container image the first time you run the debug process. The time depends on the size of your project and the speed of your network connection.

Using Breakpoints​

  1. Add Breakpoints: The templates are not set up to break at the application's entry. To debug your application, you need to add breakpoints to the code.

    1. Click on the left side of the line number where you want to set the breakpoint.

  2. Run the debug process (press F5): The application will start running and then stop at the breakpoint.

You can now use all the standard debugging features in VS Code. See the VS Code Debugging documentation for more details.

Deploy and Debug Tasks​

The following diagram displays the flow of the deployment and debugging process:

Task Flow



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