How do I skip external code when debugging in VS Code

Question

When debugging in vscode I'd like to make some "blackboxing" and do not enter into code I didn't write. How can I do this?

Liam · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-22 09:26:31Z

85

In your launch or attach debug task you can enter a

"skipfiles"

option which is

"An array of file or folder names, or path globs, to skip when debugging."

For example, from skipping node internals during debugging

"skipFiles": [
  "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**/*.js",
  "${workspaceFolder}/yourLibToSkip/**/*.js"
]

Also, there is a "magic reference" to the built-in core node modules you can use:

"skipFiles": [
  "<node_internals>/**/*.js"
]

edited Sep 22, 2021 at 9:26

Liam

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answered Nov 30, 2017 at 5:22

Mark

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8 Comments

Pavel L Over a year ago

could you kindly provide some example, I still cannot prevent entering to different dependencies folders inside of "node_modules" folder (i.e. ./node_modules/react-dom/lib/...), when debugging . part of launch task is "skipFiles":"[./node_modules/**]"

Mark Over a year ago

@d2048 See my edits to the answer and the included link.

Tomas Baran Over a year ago

This doesn't work for flutter. Can you please show us the full example for flutter please? This looks like for javascript

Dan Dascalescu Over a year ago

That "magic reference" doesn't work. I've downloaded VSCode today, debugged a TypeScript project, and am still ending up in async_hooks.js.

Craig Hicks Over a year ago

Although "skipFiles":["<node_internals>/**"] works for debug sessions which are NOT attached, it doesn't seem to work in case of attaching a process.

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Mauro Aguilar · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-06 21:11:00Z

17

I was confused on where to put the setting, so just in case, if you want to skip both node_modules deps and node_internals files, your .vscode/launch.json file should look something like this:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Debug Tests",
            "type": "node",
            "request": "launch",
            ...
            "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**", "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**/*.js"]
        }
    ]
}

answered May 6, 2021 at 21:11

Mauro Aguilar

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3 Comments

ggariepy Over a year ago

This was the answer that worked for me debugging a ReactJS app using Chrome on Windows.

fivestones Over a year ago

I was trying with lots of other answers to this question and none of them worked. Turns out my problem was that I had skipFiles as a sibling to configurations instead of as a child. This fixed it for me. Thanks!

quilkin Over a year ago

thank you for showing me exactly where to place skipFiles in the file. The other refs don't explain this.

Julian · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-30 06:42:16Z

4

Only this worked for me.

"debug.javascript.terminalOptions": {
    "skipFiles": [
        "<node_internals>/**"
    ]
}

answered Sep 30, 2021 at 6:42

Julian

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Comments

starball · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-13 20:28:36Z

3

It depends on the language/debug-support extension. VS Code does not have a generalized way to do this. I don't know the reason why, and it could just be because nobody has the time to design and implement it, but I'd guess that a challenge is that languages and their surrounding implementations and tooling differ in the ways that they describe programs in source and object/binary formats, and in the ways that their backing debug tooling support skipping things in debugging.

For node launch configurations, use the skipFiles property of the launch config. Related user documentation can be found at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/nodejs/nodejs-debugging#_skipping-uninteresting-code.

You can also use the skipFiles property of the debug.javascript.terminalOptions setting for auto-attach and JS debug terminals.
For Python debugging, use the justMyCode property of the launch configuration. See also Visual Studio Code - Python debugging - How to step into external functions/packages?. There's also a debugpy.debugJustMyCode contributed by the debugpy extension.
For Jupyter notebook debugging, use the jupyter.debugJustMyCode setting. See also How to debug external libraries in vscode-jupyter cell debugger?.
For Java debugging with the vscode-java-debug extension, use the java.debug.settings.stepping.skipClasses user setting. It takes an array of patterns and supports special values like $JDK, $Libraries, and java.lang.ClassLoader, and also supports wildcards.
For C/C++ when using a debugger like GDB with the cppdbg launch config type, use GDB's skip command in the setupCommands property of the launch config. See also Exclude files from vscode C++ debug step into?, Tell gdb to skip standard files, and GDB C++ How to Stop Stepping Inside Standard Libraries.
C# debugging supports justMyCode in launch configs via the justMyCode property, and in settings via the csharp.debug.justMyCode setting.
For Flutter/Dart, use the dart.debugSdkLibraries and dart.debugExternalPackageLibraries settings.
For Go, I don't know. But you can at least use the go.delveConfig setting's hideSystemGoroutines to hide system goroutines from the call-stack view.

edited Feb 13 at 20:28

answered Dec 8, 2023 at 21:13

starball♦

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3 Comments

starball Over a year ago

Normally I'd vote to close such a question as lacking focus. But people on meta have gotten cross at me for doing that on well-established questions... Also, I have no idea what to do about stackoverflow.com/q/52980448/11107541, which seems to have been interpreted by the community just as broadly despite being about C#.

srm Feb 13 at 19:59

the issue on this question is that most users (including myself until recently) don't think of the question as broad -- VSCode is VSCode in our heads, and we don't really think of it as a framework into which languages plug in. I knew this intellectually, but it's not intuitive. So most users are likely to ask the question about VSCode generically. And so it needs a comprehensive answer like this one.

starball Feb 13 at 20:33

@srm my thoughts have changed since I wrote that comment. I wouldn't close this question as lacking focus today since I'm no longer so confident that there's some reason VS Code couldn't present a standard interface at least for extension developers to adhere to, and I agree with where you're coming from and think it's valid. by the way, if you think this is a useful answer, consider applying your ability to vote.

Dirigible · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-16 15:46:31Z

2

For Typescript built with Webpack, I had to put the exclusions in launch.json - putting them in settings.json/terminalOptions had no effect.

Also, I had to exclude the pattern of the generated files, not the source files. In my case it looks like:

"skipFiles": [
    "<node_internals>/**",
    "**/vendors-*",
],

answered Feb 16, 2023 at 15:46

Dirigible

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Comments

Mike S. · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-13 22:24:46Z

1

For some reason, I've needed to add both types of skip file entries,

  "skipFiles": [
    "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**/*.js",
    "<node_internals>/**"
  ],

This seems to have resolved the issue.

answered Mar 13, 2022 at 22:24

Mike S.

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Comments

Tomas Baran · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-13 19:21:12Z

1

For flutter apps, add to your user settings the following:

"debugExternalPackageLibraries": false,
"dart.debugSdkLibraries": false,

edited Jul 13, 2023 at 19:21

answered Sep 11, 2021 at 14:59

Tomas Baran

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Comments

HK boy · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-16 21:48:37Z

0

this is my launch.json file (it works for me):

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "edge",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Launch Edge against localhost",
            "url": "http://localhost:4200",
            "webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "skipFiles": [
              "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**/*.js"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

edited Jul 16, 2020 at 21:48

HK boy

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answered Jul 16, 2020 at 15:44

Martin Medina

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Comments

Dharman · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-06 16:24:46Z

Just to amplify on Mauro Aguilar's correct answer, here are the complete contents of my launch.json file. Note that I am debugging a ReactJS app (circa 2021) with VS Code 1.60.2 on Windows 10 using Chrome v.94. If you're using a Linux machine or a Mac, YMMV.

{
    // 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": [
        {
            "type": "pwa-chrome",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Launch Chrome against localhost",
            "url": "http://localhost:3000",
            "webRoot": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "skipFiles": ["<node_internals>/**/*.js", "${workspaceFolder}/node_modules/**/*.js"]
        },
    ]
}

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