How to attach debugger

[ptvbnk]

Hi,
I am trying to contribute to this project - #2443
I am able to setup and successfully run the stuff on getting started page.

I am having problem with debugging cake library from the other repo which uses .cake file to copy files like mentioned in the issue.
Basically, I am using .cake file to move files from one folder to another without any link to dotnet code in the repo.
I searched on internet and couldn't find attaching debugger for this use case.
Please guide with some resources here.

Also, I am unable to recreate the scenario mentioned in the issue. Even the correct case mentioned is not working i.e. copy of files is not happening at all.

Thanks.

[augustoproiete]

Hey @coder2213 thanks for the interest in improving #2443

There's a few different ways to do that... A simple one would be to:

• Run the Cake script with the flag -debug e.g. dotnet cake -debug test.cake
  You should get a message similar to:

Attach debugger to process 12345 to continue...

• Then, open the Cake solution in Visual Studio
• Put the breakpoints in the places you want (in your case, probably somewhere in cake/src/Cake.Common/IO/FileCopier.cs)
• Go to the menu Debug ➡️ Attach to Process, and find the process with the number indicated by running Cake as per above

---

Another alternative is to

• Set the Cake project as the startup project
  

• Update the properties of the Cake project to run the Cake file that you want to debug
  

• Put the breakpoints in the places you want (in your case, probably somewhere in cake/src/Cake.Common/IO/FileCopier.cs)

• And run (F5) normally as if you were debugging a Console application

[ptvbnk]

I tried moving to v1.1.0 tag code. Still I am not able to hit breakpoints.

[augustoproiete]

@coder2213 Have you tried the second method by just passing arguments to the runner when hitting F5?

[ptvbnk]

Yes, I did.

I am using below code in other repo where I am trying to use cake (exampleapp solution)

var target = Argument("target", "Test");
var configuration = Argument("configuration", "Release");

Task("Clean")
	  .Does(() =>
{
CopyFiles(
    new[]
    {
        new FilePath("./source/file1.txt")
    },
    "target", // Even though this should work, try `MakeAbsolute(Directory("Destination"))`
                   // for full effect
    preserveFolderStructure: true);
}
);

Any issue with above script?`

[augustoproiete]

Looks like your script doesn't do anything... It just declares a task, but doesn't actually run it.

You're missing a RunTarget(target); at the very end.

// Select which target to use based on user input or default to "Test" if not provided by the user
var target = Argument("target", "Test");

// Define the code to execute when the "Clean" target is executed
Task("Clean")
    .Does(() =>
{
    // (...)
});

// (...)

// Runs the selected target defined at the beginning
RunTarget(target);

[ptvbnk]

Added RunTarget and its working.
Thanks.