Visual Studio Code setup for debugging on MacOS with Arm processor

[Sh18RW]

When I started modifying the Space Station 14 code, I encountered an issue: I couldn’t debug the program because there were no ARM dylibs. To help other newbies set up their environment in Visual Studio Code, I’ve outlined the steps below.

Step 1: Install the x64 .NET SDK

dotnet --info

Look for the Target SDK Architecture and the installation path in the output.

Step 2: Update .vscode/launch.json

In your .vscode/launch.json file, update the program, args, and targetArchitecture arguments for each configuration. Below is a template for the updated configurations:

{
            "name": "<launch option name>",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "<path to x64 .NET SDK, default /usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet>",
            "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.<the name>/Content.<the same name>.dll"],
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "targetArchitecture": "x86_64",
        },

Changes

• Set the program argument to the path of the x64 .NET SDK (/usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet by default).

• Add the path to the compiled .dll file in the args argument.

• Include the targetArchitecture argument and set it to x86_64.

---

My launch.json configuration

Here’s the launch.json configuration I use for my fork of Space Station 14:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        // Universal configurations
        {
            "name": "Client",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Client/Content.Client.dll",
            "args": [],
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false
        },
        {
            "name": "Client (Compatibility renderer)",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Client/Content.Client.dll",
            "args": "--cvar display.compat=true",
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false
        },
        {
            "name": "Server",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Server/Content.Server.dll",
            "args": [],
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "stopAtEntry": false
        },
        {
            "name": "YAML Linter",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "preLaunchTask": "build-yaml-linter",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.YAMLLinter/Content.YAMLLinter.dll",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/Content.YAMLLinter",
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false
        },
        // Arm MacOS x64 configurations
        {
            "name": "Mac x64 Client",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "/usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet",
            "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Client/Content.Client.dll"],
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "targetArchitecture": "x86_64",
        },
        {
            "name": "Mac x64 Client (Compatibility renderer)",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "/usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet",
            "args": [
                "--cvar display.compat=true",
                "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Client/Content.Client.dll",
            ],
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "targetArchitecture": "x86_64",
        },
        {
            "name": "Mac x64 Server",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "/usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet",
            "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.Server/Content.Server.dll"],
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "targetArchitecture": "x86_64",
        },
        {
            "name": "Mac x64 YAML Linter",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "preLaunchTask": "build-yaml-linter",
            "program": "/usr/local/share/dotnet/x64/dotnet",
            "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/bin/Content.YAMLLinter/Content.YAMLLinter.dll"],
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/Content.YAMLLinter",
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "targetArchitecture": "x86_64",
        },
    ],
    "compounds": [
        {
            "name": "Server/Client",
            "configurations": [
                "Server",
                "Client"
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "build"
        },
        {
            "name": "Mac x64 Server/Client",
            "configurations": [
                "Mac x64 Client",
                "Mac x64 Server",
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "build",
        },
    ]
}

Notes

• The configurations include both universal and Mac ARM to x64 specific setups.

• Before coping check this variant for deprecated configurations.