[Regression] Debugging of typescript node apps has been broken

[Deilan]

• VSCode Version:
  Code 1.19.0 (816be67, 2017-12-14T12:06:43.492Z)
  Code - Insiders 1.20.0-insider (08ec160, 2017-12-
  15T05:15:38.886Z)
• OS Version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.16299
• Extensions: none

---

Debugging works fine in Code 1.18.1 (929bacb, 2017-11-16T18:32:36.023Z). Have to revert to it until the bug is fixed.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. clone https://github.com/deilan/node-typescript-vscode
2. npm install or yarn install
3. Launch Launch via nodemon debugging configuration

Result:
The process has been started, debugger couldn't start with the following error message:

Cannot connect to runtime process, timeout after 10000 ms - (reason: Cannot connect to the target: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:35247).

[weinand]

Your launch config is wrong (and it was only working in previous versions of VS Code because of bug #16173).
The problem is that you are passing all arguments via the "runtimeArgs" attribute. This makes it difficult for VS Code to insert the "--inspect-brk" argument it the right location.

Instead you should only pass nodemon arguments via "runtimeArgs", then use the "program" attribute for your "real" program and then the "real" arguments through the "args" attribute.
(So if you remove the "runtimeExecutable" and "runtimeArgs" attributes from the launch config, then you should end up with a launch config that runs your program without nodemon.)
E.g.:

{
    "name": "Launch via nodemon",
    "type": "node",
    "request": "launch",
    "protocol": "inspector",
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
    "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/nodemon",
    "runtimeArgs": [
        "--exitcrash",
        "--config", "${workspaceRoot}/nodemon.json",
        "--exec", "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/ts-node",
    ],
    "program": "${workspaceRoot}/src/index.ts",
    "args": [
        "--project", "${workspaceRoot}/tsconfig.development.json"
    ],
    "restart": true,
    "console": "integratedTerminal",
    "internalConsoleOptions": "openOnSessionStart",
    "skipFiles": [
        "node_modules/**",
        "<node_internals>/**"
    ]
},

This launch config should work on all versions of VS Code so you can try it with 1.18.1 and if it works you can safely upgrade to 1.19.

Let me know if this works.

[Deilan]

@weinand Thanks for the explanation. I've tried the suggested debug configuration. Unfortunately I've got the following error message on both 1.18.1 and 1.20.0:

Cannot launch program 'c:\Dev\node-typescript-vscode\src\index.ts' because corresponding JavaScript cannot be found.

There's no outFiles and as far as I understand specifying them doesn't make sense. Of course if I specify outFiles as an empty array I get:

Cannot launch program 'c:\Dev\node-typescript-vscode\src\index.ts' because corresponding JavaScript cannot be found.

[weinand]

You do not seem to have an explicit build task that transpiles TS to JS.
The ts-node seems to be the tool that transpiles in your case.
That means VS Code cannot really know where the generated JS lives.
But since ts-node takes care of it, VS Code does not really has to know.

Remove the "program" attribute and insert the "${workspaceRoot}/src/index.ts" as the first argument of the "args" attribute just before "--project".

{
    "name": "Launch via nodemon",
    "type": "node",
    "request": "launch",
    "protocol": "inspector",
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
    "runtimeExecutable": "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/nodemon",
    "runtimeArgs": [
        "--exitcrash",
        "--config", "${workspaceRoot}/nodemon.json",
        "--exec", "${workspaceRoot}/node_modules/.bin/ts-node",
    ],
    "args": [
        "${workspaceRoot}/src/index.ts",
        "--project", "${workspaceRoot}/tsconfig.development.json"
    ],
    "restart": true,
    "console": "integratedTerminal",
    "internalConsoleOptions": "openOnSessionStart",
    "skipFiles": [
        "node_modules/**",
        "<node_internals>/**"
    ]
},

[Deilan]

Yep, that worked. 1.18.1, 1.19.0 and 1.20.0. Thanks @weinand!