Has anyone been able to use VS Code (not VS Studio) to debug using attach to process?

Question

I'm interested if anyone (or if it's possible to) to use VS Code to to debug python toolboxes using the Attach to process functionality mentioned here:

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/2.8/arcpy/get-started/debugging-python-code.htm

VS Code has the functionality and I think I'm configuring it correctly but when I start a debug session an begin stepping through break points nothing seems to be connected.

Is this possible with Pro? Has anyone done this succesfully?

Brian_Wilson · Answer

I spent some time yesterday playing around with the "Attach to process" debugging. Your Python script under test has to have the debugging component in it, which I did with two lines. When the python runs, it opens port 5678 and then you can find the process and attach to it in VS Code. Everything works then - single step, setting breakpoints, changing values of variables...

But sadly when I added that code to a Python Toolbox and ran it from the COMMAND LINE it worked, but when starting it running inside ArcGIS Pro it caused a new copy of Pro to spawn instead of launching the tool. So close! But useless.

"""
Run this from the command line, then connect to it from VSCode.
Set a breakpoint inside the loop and it should stop there.
Step through (F10) the loop a few times.
When you are done you could set loop to False in the debugger
to see it exit the loop and terminate.
"""
import time
import debugpy
debugpy.listen(5678)

tock = 1
loop = True # Set this to False in the debugger to end the program.
while loop :
    print("Tick", tock)
    tock += 1
    time.sleep(1)
print("We're done here.")

Brian_Wilson · Answer

Pretty much what they describe is what I do.  The bottom of the .pyt file has code that will run in VS Code but not in the actual toolbox in ArcGIS Pro.

# Unit test
if __name__ == "__main__":

class Messenger(object):
        def addMessage(self, message):
            print(message)

hello = Hello_Tool()
    hello.execute(None, Messenger())

What have you tried so far?

I_AM_ERROR · Answer

Thanks, read through those and tried ESRI's recommendations but no luck so far....