MinGW 13.2.0 toolchain's GDB (version 11.2), when run through the C/C++ Debug Adapter, cannot force the program to break without a defined breakpoint.

[tfinnegan937]

Environment

• OS and version:
  Windows 10 22H2 Build Version 19045.5371

• VS Code:
  1.96.3

• C/C++ extension:
  1.22.11

• GDB / LLDB version:

GNU gdb (GDB) 11.2 (Provided with the MinGW version below.

• MinGW build used:

https://github.com/niXman/mingw-builds-binaries/releases/tag/13.2.0-rt_v11-rev1

(This is an official build pointed to by MinGW's downloads page, under the MinGW-w64 Builds heading https://www.mingw-w64.org/downloads/)

Bug Summary and Steps to Reproduce

Bug Summary:

The bugger starts successfully, but then the program refuses to break unless a breakpoint is set prior to execution. The "pause" button does not work.

Why are we using MinGW on Windows? We're doing some work with an analysis tool that only supports GCC. Switching to MSVC is not a viable workaround.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Configure a C++ "cppdbg" debug target with the MIMode and MIDebuggerPath pointing to MinGW's GDB.
2. Run your debug target
3. Attempt to force a break with the "pause" button
4. The program will refuse to pause.
5. Stop the program. Set a breakpoint.
6. The program successfully breaks at the breakpoint.

Debugger Configurations

{
    // 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": [
        {
            "name": "Big Endian Network Converter (Windows)",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${command:cmake.buildDirectory}\\tools\\bigendian_network_converter\\${command:cmake.buildType}\\bigendian_network_converter-windows-x86_64-${command:cmake.buildType}.exe",
            "args": [
                "-tftpip",
                "127.0.0.1",
                "-cfg",
                "ipport_common.cfg",
                "ipport.cfg",
                "bigendian_network_converter.cfg",
                "desktop.ocfg",
                "desktop_common.ocfg"
            ],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${command:cmake.buildDirectory}\\tools\\bigendian_network_converter\\${command:cmake.buildType}\\",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/shell/mingw64/bin/gdb.exe",
            "environment": [
                {
                    // add the directory where our target was built to the PATHs
                    // it gets resolved by CMake Tools:
                    "name": "PATH",
                    "value": "${env:PATH}:${command:cmake.buildDirectory}\\tools\\bigendian_network_converter\\${command:cmake.buildType}\\"
                }
            ],
            "logging": { "engineLogging": true, "trace": true, "traceResponse": true }
        },
    ]
}

Debugger Logs

[debug_adapter_logs.txt](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/18540942/debug_adapter_logs.txt)

Other Extensions

1. njpwerner.autodocstring
2. Damien.autoit
3. ms-vscode.cpptools-extension-pack
4. Parasoft.vscode-cpptest
5. twxs.cmake
6. ms-vscode.cmake-tools

Additional Information

The nature of this work is sensitive, and the amount of information that I can provide about our codebase is limited. I would be happy to build smaller examples for the purposes of debugging this, however.

[github-actions]

Thank you for reporting this issue. We’ll let you know if we need more information to investigate it. Additionally, if you're working with GDB/LLDB, please note that the code is open source at https://github.com/microsoft/MIEngine/wiki/Contributing-Code . Your contributions are always welcome and appreciated.

[NicoCaldo]

This happens to me as well
(VSCode 1.99
C/C++ Extensions 1.24.5
GNU gdb (GDB) 8.1)

[tfinnegan937]

This happens to me as well (VSCode 1.99 C/C++ Extensions 1.24.5 GNU gdb (GDB) 8.1)

@NicoCaldo I was able to resolve this by downloading the latest version of MinGW, and pulling the GDB installation out of it and replacing the older version in MinGW11. It seems that the old GDB version has a bug that prevents the debug adapter from signalling it to break. It requires a bit of work to pull all of the necessary files over, but now VSCode can force it to break.

[NicoCaldo]

@tfinnegan937 the GDB version on the last mingw is the 7.6.1 but I'm seeing gdb to be at 16.2.

Where should have I to download it?

EDIT: I can confirm that with the GDB in https://packages.msys2.org/packages/mingw-w64-x86_64-gdb it works correctly