# Debugger no longer hits breakpoints in VSC?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** vscode, debugger\
**Created:** [March 12, 2026, 12:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161 "2026-03-12T12:28:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Maucejo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/maucejo/32/39090_2.png) [@Maucejo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Maucejo)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 10:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161/21 "2026-03-25T10:15:39Z")

</div>

Thanks @pfitzseb, it works now. Removing `ALL_EXCEPT_MAIN` from Compiled does the trick. I am just wondering why setting `ALL_EXCEPT_MAIN` prevents from entering in a function despite being marked as interpreted.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pfitzseb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pfitzseb/32/45566_2.png) [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 10:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161/22 "2026-03-25T10:34:39Z")

</div>

It probably sets some higher order function in Base as compiled (and is just a bad default for that reason, as noted above already).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Deduction42](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/deduction42/32/9206_2.png) [@Deduction42](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Deduction42)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2026, 2:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161/23 "2026-05-15T14:28:57Z")

</div>

Previous versions worked so that setting “ALL\_EXCEPT\_MAIN” was overridden by specific compiled statements. You could “interpret by exception” which was actually the behavior I (and likely most other people) wanted because not compiling can make certain libraries slow to the point where a debugger becomes unusable. I usually just want to interpret the modules I set my breakpoints in. It worked this way in Jan/Feb when I tried it. I usually avoid the debugger at all costs but I needed it to solve some interaction issues I had with my package and OrdinaryDiffEq; I was surprised it worked so well said to myself out loud “Finally, Julia has a decent debugger”. Now it seems like my euphoria has been cut short, I had issues when OrdinaryDiffEq bumped a version and breakpoints were skipped. I removed the “ALL\_EXCEPT\_MAIN” setting, and everything became interpreted and slow. I was back to painful exercise of clicking individual modules to compile by exception. Is there any way to make “interpret by exception” work again?

[Previous page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugger-no-longer-hits-breakpoints-in-vsc/136161.md?page=1)