# Debugging in VS Code suddenly stopped working

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625>\
**Category:** VS Code\
**Tags:** question, debug, debugging\
**Created:** [March 6, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625 "2021-03-06T18:15:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lpratafe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lpratafe/32/22026_2.png) [@lpratafe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lpratafe)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/1 "2021-03-06T18:15:07Z")

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Hi everyone, I’m having some trouble debugging my julia code in VS Code and it’s getting me out of my mind. It possibly is because I don’t understand quite exactly how debugging works (I’ve searched for it but didn’t get much progress in the last hours), so I decided to ask you for help.

I have been using VS Code for a while, and the past week I have been working intensely in a julia code. Running it, debugging it, changing it, etc. The thing is, yesterday, out of a sudden, the debug button (little play symbol with a bug on it) started doing nothing. It has been very stressful hours, because I was being super productive for once, so I’ll list what I have tried so far, without success:

- Debugging using F5;
- Closing the file, the folder, VS Code itself, reopening it and trying again;
- Uninstalling and reinstalling the julia extension;
- Uninstalling and reinstalling VS Code;
- Uninstalling and reinstalling Julia;

All of the above while using Linux Mint. After all that I decided to restart my computer and initialize it with Windows 10. I performed everything listed above again, without success.

I then searched the forum and found there was a way to debug I didn’t know of: I typed `Ctrl + Shift + P` and searched for **Julia: Debug File in New Process** , which didn’t work any of the times I tried it, but at least gave me an error message:

![julia](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/0/c/0c879378cfcc44d3c9ed6a22b743bd949ffe607a.png)

I must say that the code runs normally when pressing the play button on the top right of the window or starting through the terminal, but nothing happens when using `Ctrl + F5`.

Can anyone give me some light as to what is happening and/or what I can do to fix it? I really need to debug this code, and I really wish to not having to change IDE because of this.

I appreciate any type of answer, thanks!

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**Author:** ![Raynier\_van\_Egmond](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/raynier_van_egmond/32/14985_2.png) [@Raynier\_van\_Egmond](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Raynier_van_Egmond)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/2 "2021-03-07T18:12:15Z")

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NO Solution for you Unfortunately - confirming that the same thing happened to me a few days ago on a pure Win10 system. This happened in the past to me with the Python language also. Reinstalling sometimes worked and never found a “proper sequence of things to follow to get it to work again” – I can’t get the Julia stuff to work anymore even after reinstalling, reinstalling and deleting all VScode files…

Hitting a deadline for my Julia code I now decided to switch to JuliaPro; installed it and debugging code as before. Hurts because all my coding on Python, MicroPython, ARM you name it I do on VSCode but if I can’t rely on it for my commercial projects … time to go…

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**Author:** ![ToucheSir](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/touchesir/32/14411_2.png) [@ToucheSir](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ToucheSir)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/3 "2021-03-07T18:36:17Z")

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Looks like a recent minor or patch update is to blame: ["Start debugging" does not work anymore in 1.1.33 / Ubuntu · Issue #2004 · julia-vscode/julia-vscode · GitHub](https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode/issues/2004).

As the issue notes, you can still invoke the debugger [from the REPL](https://www.julia-vscode.org/docs/stable/userguide/debugging/#Debugging-code-from-the-REPL-1). I’d also have a look at the extension output to see if it’s logging or throwing anything fishy.

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**Author:** ![lpratafe](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lpratafe/32/22026_2.png) [@lpratafe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lpratafe)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/4 "2021-03-07T21:10:09Z")

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Thanks for the links! As the author o the issue noted, installing a previous version of the extension works. I did it and now things are back to normal. 😉

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**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 10, 2021, 10:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/5 "2021-03-10T10:02:42Z")

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That bug is fixed with 1.1.34, so updating should be safe. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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**Author:** ![jwkunz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d9b06d/32.png) [@jwkunz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jwkunz)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/debugging-in-vs-code-suddenly-stopped-working/56625/6 "2021-06-02T01:36:56Z")

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I had success fixing this issue changing the launch configuration of the “program” launch setting from the default “${workspaceFolder}/Program” to “${workspaceFolder}/${relativeFile}”

e.g  
“configurations”: [  
{  
“type”: “julia”,  
“request”: “launch”,  
“name”: “Julia: Debugger”,  
“program”: “${workspaceFolder}/${relativeFile}”,  
“stopOnEntry”: false  
}  
]