Octave Debugger installs statistics

VS Code Octave Debugger

This extension provides debugging support for Octave code. This is done by interfacing with octave-cli via stdin/stdout. Support for running Matlab code is also done through octave-cli. Make sure octave-cli is in your path environment variable. Note that octave-cli must be installed on your system. You can download it here. If you're using windows or scripts with UI elements such as plots and widgets, using octave-gui is recommended. For more details on plots check this page. You can use

to prevent the script from exiting, allowing continuous debugging of plots. Another option is to put while(waitforbuttonpress()==0) pause(1) end at the end of your script. See here for more details.

Do read the changelog to know what's new in this version. This extension has been tested with octave-5.1 and octave-6.1, so everything in between and perhaps more recent versions should also work. If it doesn't, or if a variable is not shown properly, etc, please do let me know over here. Additionally, please check the known issues on this page.

Though the following is not necessary to use this extension, I recommend the Octave extension for syntax highlighting. I prefer it over Matlab. Nicer colors. The following language extension supports code outline for the focused file Octave Hacking. We're still missing is the F12 "jump to definition" code navigation. If someone has time and wants to implement it here's a place to start.

Octave Debugger This extension supports actions: • continue, step, step in, step out, • breakpoints, conditional breakpoints, • variable inspection, variable editing • stack navigation and visualization • expression evaluation, via console input, watch UI, or mouse hover

The following types are currently supported: • Scalar: floats and ints, the default type being double • Matrix of all basic types, includes ComplexMatrix/BoolMatrix • DiagonalMatrix/ComplexDiagonalMatrix/PermutationMatrix • SparseMatrix/SparseComplexMatrix • Range • ScalarStruct/Struct • ClassDef • Inline functions and function handles • Cell Arrays • LazyIndex (No docs. This might be an internal type only.) • SqString • Strings • UnknownType: represents unknown types as strings.

If a type isn't supported, request it on the project repository.

If you want to edit the value of a variable be it scalar, array, or structure, you can double click on it in the VARIABLES view, and type in the new value. That expression will be evaluated and if successful the variable will be updated with the new value. You can also submit any command you like through the debug console as if you were typing directly into Octave.

More information about debugging with Octave can be found here.

Using Octave Debugger

• Open the directory containing the project that you want to debug using everyone's favorite editor, visual studio code. • In the vsCode debug view click the DEBUG drop-down box and select "Add configuration...". See animation above. • Select "OctaveDebugger" from the menu that pops up. • The following is the default configuration which will debug the current selected file: • Open the file you wish to debug. • Set breakpoints as needed. • Press the DEBUG ▷ button or F5 to start debugging. • Open the DEBUG CONSOLE to view any output from your program or to interact with it. Commands will be sent directly to Octave.

Interactive Mode

In this mode octave will continue to execute beyond the script execution. Therefore, the "program" field can be empty as follows:

Commands can be sent via the DEBUG CONSOLE. To enter this mode set "autoTerminate": false in the launch configuration. Note that octave will terminate only when either the stop □ button is pressed, or when an error occurs after the end of the script. To continue executing even on error, use the octave option "octaveArguments": [ "--interactive" ],. The main point of this mode is that variables will continue to be displayed in the VARIABLES and WATCHES view beyond the end of the script.

Debug Session Configuration Variables

• Example: • "program" can be anything that can be evaluated, e.g. "path/to/file.m", or "functionName(value)". It defaults to ${file} which corresponds to the currently focused file. This is a vscode variable - see variables-reference. However, something like "functionName('/some/path/file.m')" probably won't work, as the plugin tries to parse the program directory from this value. • "octave" must point to the location where "octave-cli" or "octave-gui" is installed. This parameter is optional, and defaults to "octave-cli" which assumes that "octave-cli" is in your path. If that's not the case make sure to provide the full installation path. • "sourceFolder" is an optional parameter that defaults to "${workspaceFolder}". Basically it is added using "addpath()" before starting the "program". More than one directory can be added by separating them with pathsep() which defaults to :.

For example:

is equivalent to

"program": "${workspaceFolder}/A/B/C/foo.m"

• "workingDirectory" is another optional parameter. Octave will switch to this directory before running "program". In the following example program "foo" can exist anywhere under "${workspaceFolder}", but will be executed from "${workspaceFolder}/A/B/C/": • "splitFieldnamesOctaveStyle" this allows struct field names to be almost arbitrary (details). This option is not compatible with Matlab and so it's off by default (details).

Environment Variables and Octave Arguments…

Description from the VS Code Marketplace listing.