Debugger Search

Search for values through the Visual Studio Code debugger.

This extension is avaliable in the vscode marketplace.

Features

This extension adds nine new commands to Visual Studio Code:

• variableSearch.search - Search for a term while the debugger is paused. Filters by thread, stack frame and scope. Prints results to a special output channel,
  and to a custom view under “Run and Debug.”
• variableSearch.setThread - Choose the thread to search.
• variableSearch.setFrame - Choose the stack frame (relative to the selected thread) to search.
• variableSearch.setSearchDepth - How deep should the search traverse? For example, a search depth of 2 would find ExampleNamespace.ExampleMemberVar, but not ExampleNamespace.ExampleMemberVar.SecondExampleMemberVar. Note that values above 3 may take some time.
• variableSearch.resetParameters - Reset all search parameters, so they can be chosen again. For example, select a different scope or stack frame.
• variableSearch.setScope - Choose the scope you would like to search in. Example from Python: Locals, Globals
• variableSearch.setSearchType - Choose the type of search you would like to perform; options include either contains, regex or exact match.
• variableSearch.searchForTermFromTree - Search the debugger from the “Run and Debug” GUI screen (vscode’s debug view).
• variableSearch.cancelSearch - Cancel the search in progress; also available to trigger from the GUI.

FAQ

• I can filter variables by typing in the Variables panel under “Run and Debug”. How is this different?
  • The filtering built into vscode does not automatically expand sub-objects. So only objects you have ‘unfolded’ would be included in your search results. For heavy searching, this is untenable; we need to request the information from the Debug Adapter.

Known Issues

• Occasionally, the “Debugger Search” output channel fails to populate until you select a different output channel (e.g, tasks) then go back. Results should still appear in the “Advanced Variables Search” panel when this happens. See this github issue.

0.8

Beta release..

Contributing

• Pull requests are welcome. Please document issue reports with screenshots where possible.