# TestItems: debugger crashes in vscode

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** debug, vscode, debugger\
**Created:** [August 31, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126 "2026-08-31T22:50:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stustd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stustd/32/21430_2.png) [@stustd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stustd)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126/1 "2026-08-31T22:50:00Z")

</div>

I start the debugger on a `@testitem` that runs perfectly fine without debugger. Putting in a breakpoint (at some line in the `@testset`) and then trying to debug causes the debugger to crash:

```julia-auto
[ Info: Julia test item process launching
  Activating project at `~/workspace/Actryx/projects/internal/AxActor/src/jl/AxActor`
Main.Testsetups.Setup.Config(5, 5, Float16(1.0))
[ Info: Now waiting for debug session
┌ Error: Some Julia code in the VS Code extension crashed
└ @ Main ~/.vscode-oss/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.174.2-universal/scripts/error_handler.jl:5
ERROR: 
Stacktrace:
 [1] error(s::String)
   @ Base ./error.jl:44
 [2] run(debug_engine::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines.DebugEngine)
   @ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines ~/.vscode-oss/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.174.2-universal/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/DebugEngines.jl:308
 [3] run(debug_session::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugSession, error_handler::var"#2#3")
   @ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter ~/.vscode-oss/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.174.2-universal/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/packagedef.jl:162
 [4] (::TestItemServer.var"#start_debug_backend##0#start_debug_backend##1"{String, var"#2#3", Channel{Bool}})()
   @ TestItemServer ~/.vscode-oss/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.174.2-universal/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/TestItemServer/src/TestItemServer.jl:525

```

Anyone some idea what’s wrong? Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davidanthoff](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/davidanthoff/32/223493_2.png) [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 12:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126/2 "2026-09-01T00:20:55Z")

</div>

Can you try with the prerelease version of the extension? You can switch between them in the VS Code extension manager.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stustd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stustd/32/21430_2.png) [@stustd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stustd)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126/3 "2026-09-01T08:33:21Z")

</div>

@davidanthoff I installed the latest MS VSCode and installed the vscode-julia-extension and enabled Pre-Release version. Test runs fine, but debugger still crashes (with a different error, however):  
``` Activating project at `~/workspace/Actryx/projects/internal/AxActor/src/jl/AxActor`  
Main.Testsetups.Setup.Config(5, 5, Float16(1.0))  
[ Info: Now waiting for debug session  
┌ Error: Some Julia code in the VS Code extension crashed  
└ @ Main ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/error\_handler.jl:5  
ERROR:  
Stacktrace:  
[1] error(s::String)  
@ Base ./error.jl:44  
[2] run(debug\_engine::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines.DebugEngine)  
@ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/DebugEngines.jl:308  
[3] run(debug\_session::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugSession, error\_handler::var"#2#3")  
@ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/packagedef.jl:162  
[4] (::TestItemServer.var"#start\_debug\_backend##0#start\_debug\_backend##1"{String, var"#2#3", Channel{Bool}})()  
@ TestItemServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/TestItemServer/src/TestItemServer.jl:664

[1013521] signal 15: Terminated  
in expression starting at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/app/testserver\_main.jl:17  
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc933c98e4f) at /lib/x86\_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6  
pthread\_cond\_wait at /lib/x86\_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (unknown line)  
uv\_cond\_wait at /workspace/srcdir/libuv/src/unix/thread.c:822  
ijl\_task\_get\_next at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/scheduler.c:523  
poptask at ./task.jl:1216  
wait at ./task.jl:1228  
task\_done\_hook at ./task.jl:868  
jfptr\_task\_done\_hook\_71323.1 at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/lib/julia/sys.so (unknown line)  
jl\_apply at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/julia.h:2394 [inlined]  
jl\_finish\_task at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/task.c:342  
start\_task at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/task.c:1264  
unknown function (ip: (nil)) at (unknown file)  
OPENSSL\_LH\_flush at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/bin/../lib/julia/libcrypto.so.3 (unknown line)  
OPENSSL\_LH\_free at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/bin/../lib/julia/libcrypto.so.3 (unknown line)  
err\_cleanup at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/bin/../lib/julia/libcrypto.so.3 (unknown line)  
OPENSSL\_cleanup at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/bin/../lib/julia/libcrypto.so.3 (unknown line)  
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc933c47a75) at /lib/x86\_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6  
exit at /lib/x86\_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (unknown line)  
ijl\_exit at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/init.c:197  
jlplt\_ijl\_exit\_46827.1 at /home/hjansen/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.12.7+0.x64.linux.gnu/lib/julia/sys.so (unknown line)  
exit at ./initdefs.jl:28  
#global\_err\_handler#4 at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/error\_handler.jl:67  
global\_err\_handler at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/error\_handler.jl:4  
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc919bd2c92) at (unknown file)  
jl\_apply at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/julia.h:2394 [inlined]  
jl\_f\_invokelatest at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/builtins.c:881  
#2 at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/app/testserver\_main.jl:32 [inlined]  
run at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/packagedef.jl:179  
#start\_debug\_backend##0 at /home/hjansen/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.219.2/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/TestItemServer/src/TestItemServer.jl:664  
unknown function (ip: 0x7fc919b2494f) at (unknown file)  
jl\_apply at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/julia.h:2394 [inlined]  
start\_task at /cache/build/builder-amdci5-2/julialang/julia-ci/src/task.c:1253  
unknown function (ip: (nil)) at (unknown file)  
Allocations: 20311709 (Pool: 20309410; Big: 2299); GC: 11

```julia-auto
...?

I finally tried with a locally compiled version of Julia (1.12-DEV),
however without success: debugger still crashing:

```

[ Info: Julia test item process launching  
Precompiling packages…  
31535.0 ms ✓ TestItemServer  
1 dependency successfully precompiled in 32 seconds. 33 already precompiled.  
5 dependencies precompiled but different versions are currently loaded (Base64, InteractiveUtils, JuliaSyntaxHighlighting, Markdown and StyledStrings). Restart julia to access the new versions. Otherwise, 5 dependents of these packages may trigger further precompilation to work with the unexpected versions.  
Activating project at `/tmp/jl_XIXJIy`  
Precompiling packages…  
380.8 ms ✓ TestItems  
1804.4 ms ✓ OrderedCollections  
3396.3 ms ✓ MacroTools  
886.8 ms ✓ Match  
5155.6 ms ✓ AxActor  
17092.8 ms ✓ TestItemRunner  
6 dependencies successfully precompiled in 17 seconds. 29 already precompiled.  
28 dependencies precompiled but different versions are currently loaded (ArgTools, Base64, Dates, Downloads, InteractiveUtils, JuliaSyntaxHighlighting, LibCURL, LibCURL\_jll, LibGit2, LibGit2\_jll, LibSSH2\_jll, Logging, Markdown, MozillaCACerts\_jll, NetworkOptions, OpenSSL\_jll, Pkg, Printf, Serialization, StyledStrings, TOML, Tar, Test, UUIDs, Unicode, Zlib\_jll, nghttp2\_jll and p7zip\_jll). Restart julia to access the new versions. Otherwise, 2 dependents of these packages may trigger further precompilation to work with the unexpected versions.  
Main.Testsetups.Setup.Config(5, 5, Float16(1.0))  
[ Info: Now waiting for debug session  
┌ Error: Some Julia code in the VS Code extension crashed  
└ @ Main ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.231.1/scripts/error\_handler.jl:5  
ERROR:  
Stacktrace:  
[1] error(s::String)  
@ Base ./error.jl:44  
[2] run(debug\_engine::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines.DebugEngine)  
@ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugEngines ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.231.1/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/DebugEngines.jl:308  
[3] run(debug\_session::TestItemServer.DebugAdapter.DebugSession, error\_handler::var"#2#3")  
@ TestItemServer.DebugAdapter ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.231.1/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/packages/DebugAdapter/src/packagedef.jl:162  
[4] (::TestItemServer.var"#start\_debug\_backend##0#start\_debug\_backend##1"{String, var"#2#3", Channel{Bool}})()  
@ TestItemServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.231.1/scripts/packages/TestItemControllers/testprocess/TestItemServer/src/TestItemServer.jl:657

```julia-auto
... ?
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stustd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stustd/32/21430_2.png) [@stustd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stustd)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2026, 8:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/testitems-debugger-crashes-in-vscode/139126/4 "2026-09-01T20:28:43Z")

</div>

@davidanthoff Progress: I can debug now with `setup=[SetupMod]` but not with `setup=[SetupMod,SetupSnippet]`. Works for me for now.