[Debugger] Allow an option to only exit debugging once all inferiors have exited

[randomdude789]

Type: Feature Request

Currently, once a single inferior exits, the entire debugging process exits as well. The only workaround available is to detach inferiors manually with gdb commands before they end. This is particularly problematic when gdb's detach-on-fork mode is turned on in complex programs with multiple fork calls.

The proposed solution is to add some user-facing option that will allow individual inferiors to exit without ending debugging. Since multiple-inferior debugging seems to work fine otherwise, I'm hoping this is possible.

[WardenGnaw]

I'm seeing two requests here:

1. Allow an option to only exit debugging once all inferiors have exited

2. Add some user-facing option that will allow individual inferiors to exit without ending debugging

For 1, we will need to keep track of new processes that start and if requested stop debugging, we stop all inferior processes.

For 2, we will need to add support for sending a ProcessEvent when a new process starts. e.g. https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/issues/4189#issuecomment-528505517

[rnatella]

Hi @WardenGnaw,

Are you considering to add this feature request? It would be quite useful for teaching to undegrads about debugging concurrent programs. Most of these students are uncomfortable with the GDB command line.

[kotborealis]

@WardenGnaw sorry for bothering you, but are there any updates regarding this feature? I need this to debug multiple inferiors inside QEMU machine.

[WardenGnaw]

Please vote a 👍 on the top comment as we prioritize our work with this issue query: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc