How to Make An Interactive Debugger for Rust

This article will show you how to make an interactive debugger for Rust. First, let’s see how we can make it step by step.

Use VS Code and CodeLLDB Extension to Execute Programs in Rust

VS Code and the CodeLLDB extension execute programs written in Rust. The steps to be followed for having an interactive debugger for Rust are below.

The launch.json should look like this.

"version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "lldb",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Debug",
            "program": "${workspaceRoot}/target/debug/hello_there",
            "args": [],
            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}/target/debug/",
            "sourceLanguages": ["rust"]
        }
    ]
}

But suppose we want to have generic things and compile only a binary that matches the cargo folder name. In that case, we can use ${workspaceRootFolderName} variable substitution for the program key, as displayed below.

{
 "version": "0.2.0",
 "configurations": [
	 {
		 "type": "lldb",
		 "request": "launch",
		 "name": "Debug",
		 "program": "${workspaceRoot}/target/debug/${workspaceRootFolderName}",
		 "args": [],
		 "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}/target/debug/",
		 "sourceLanguages": ["rust"]
	 }
 ]
}

Basic Rust Program

Now our interactive debugger is ready, and we can run a program in it.

// This is the main function
fn main() {
    // when the compiled binary is called statements are executed

    // Print text to the console
    println!("Hello, I'm using Rust.");
}

Output:

Hello, I'm using Rust.

Following all these steps properly, we can run and debug the Rust programs in VS Code. The installation of the extension and its configuration should be prioritized to ensure you can run the Rust program.