VSCode rdbg Ruby Debugger installs statistics
By Koichi Sasada · VS Code Marketplace · Debuggers
Ruby's rdbg debugger support for VSCode
VSCode rdbg Ruby Debugger has 1,059,425 recorded installs on VS Code Marketplace.
It ranks #521 of 2,500 tracked VS Code Marketplace listings by installs.
It is rated 5.0 out of 5 from 9 ratings.
PluginStats has 3 daily observations since Oct 16, 2026; the latest is from Oct 18, 2026.
Rating: 5.00 / 5 from 9 ratings
About VSCode rdbg Ruby Debugger
VSCode Ruby rdbg Debugger
Ruby debugger to connect debug library which utilize recent Ruby's debug support features.
Requirement
You need to install latest debug gem and rdbg command should be in $PATH.
How to use
Launch without configuration
Without any configuration, you can use this debugger by "Start Debugging" (F5 key) if you activate .rb file.
You will see the "Debug command line" input dialog. Please specify your favorite command line you want to debug.
For example: • ruby foo.rb (launch foo.rb) • ruby foo.rb 10 20 30 (launch foo.rb with options 10, 20 and 30) • rake taskA (launch rake task taskA) • bundle exec rspec (launch rspec command with bundle exec) • bin/rails s (launch bin/rails s)
When you select a command line, the specified command will run on rdbg debugger, and VSCode will connect to the rdbg debugger with UNIX domain socket.
And new terminal is created (named rdbg). You can see stdout/err outputs and you can input stdin on rdbg terminal.
You can stop the programs
• by setting breakpoints (F9) on source code. • by exception (if you enable "rescue exception"). • by pushing the Pause button (F6).
When the program stops, you can see "Call stack", "Variables" and you can set "Watch" expressions. On the debug console, you can input valid Ruby program and you will get an evaluation result on selected context ("Call stack").
See also: Debugging in Visual Studio Code
For developers: RUBY_DEBUG_DAP_SHOW_PROTOCOL=1 on rdbg terminal will show the all DAP protocol.
Launch with configurations
You can write your favorite setting in .vscode/launch.json.
To make a .vscode/launch.json with default settings, you only need to click "create a launch.json file" on the "Run and Debug" pane. And you will see the following default configurations.
It contains "Debug current file with rdbg" (launch) configuration and "Attach with rdbg" (attach) configuration. You can modify this configuration, and also you can add your favorite configuration like:
You can use the following "launch" configurations.
• Debuggee settings • script • A target script file name. • default: an active ruby file on VSCode • command • Executable Ruby command. You can specify bundle exec ruby for example. • default: ruby • cwd • Directory to execute the program in. • default: ${workspaceFolder} • args • Command line arguments passed to the program. • default: [] • env • Additional environment variables to pass to the debugging (and debugged) process. • default: N/A • useBundler: • Execute Ruby programs with bundle exec if command configuration is not given. and Gemfile is available in the workspace. • Note that you can specify this useBundler by the extension configuration (default: true). • default: undefined (and the extension configuration default value is true) • Behavior settings • askParameters • Ask "Debug command line" before debugging. If the MAIN program is always same, set it false. • Note that the last invoked command is remembered. • default: true • rdbgPath • Location of the rdbg executable. • Note that you can specify this rdbgPath by the extension configuration (default: rdbg). • default: rdbg • debugPort • Without debugPort configuration, open a UNIX Domain Socket (or TCP/IP localhost:0 on Windows) to communicate with debuggee. If you want to use another debug port, set this configuration. • Digits (e.g. 12345): open a TCP/IP debug port with port 12345 • hostname:port (e.g. hostname:12345): open a TCP/IP port 12345 and hostname hostname • Otherwise, open a UNIX Domain socket with the filename given by this configuration. • Note that you can specify 0 TCP/IP port (choose usable port) with debug.gem v1.5.0 or later. • waitLaunchTime • If you want to open TCP/IP debug port, you may need to wait for opening debug port. On default, it waits 5000 milliseconds (5 sec) but if it is not enough, please specify more wait time (default: 5000 in milliseconds). • With debug.gem 1.5.0 and later you may not need this configuration. • useTerminal • If the configuration is true, create a new terminal and then execute the debug command line there. It is a bit slower. • Otherwise, all outputs to the STDIN/OUT are shown in the DEBUG CONSOLE. • If you need to use STDIN, please set this option. • default: false • showProtocolLog • Prints all DAP communication log in "rdbg" output. This is for development of this extension. • default: false
Note that if you have a trouble by launching rdbg, please try to specify rdbgPath. Without this configuration, this extension simply calls rdbg in PATH.
Attach to the running Ruby process
You can attach to a Ruby process which run with an opening debugger port.
The following commands starts the foo.rb with opening debug port. There are more methods to open the port. See more for ruby/debug: Debugging functionality for Ruby.
After that, you can connect to the debug port. This extension searches opening debugger port and attach to that port by running Attach with rdbg (select it on the top of "RUN AND DEBUG" pane and push the green "Start Debugging" button).
You can specify the following "attach" configurations.
• rdbgPath • Same as launch request. • debugPort • Same as launch request. • localfs • On TCP/IP, if target host is local machine, set true and you can open the file directly • default: false • localfsMap • Specify pairs of remote root path and local root path like /remote_dir:/local_dir if sharing the same source repository with local and remote computers. • You can specify multiple pairs like /rem1:/loc1,/rem2:/loc2 by concatenating with ,. • default: undefined
Without debugPort configuration, the
With debugPort, you can attach to TCP/IP debug port.…
Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.
- debug
- debugger
- debuggers
- debugging
- rdbg
- ruby
Where VSCode rdbg Ruby Debugger sits in the listing
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Install counts, average rating, and rating counts come from the public Visual Studio Marketplace gallery API. Installs are cumulative and exclude updates.
Listing: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=KoichiSasada.vscode-rdbg. First seen Oct 16, 2026; last successful collection Oct 18, 2026. See the methodology.