Debugging vscode-cpptools / Extending vscode-cpptools

[theIDinside]

So I've got a few ideas that I need to implement, that involves the debugging extension (cppdbg) - and in order to learn the codebase and understand how it works, I would like to debug it - generally I think one can just do the regular vscode extension debugging; namely hit F5 and then from an extension host do what I need to do, but this doesn't seem to work.

Are there any guides for how one would contribute features and/or extend, or possibly even fork (since the features I am talking about is pretty niche) cppdbg? Must I uninstall my global installation of the extension in order to debug the git cloned one?

When I hit F5, I get this error from the extension host window;

Activating extension 'ms-vscode.cpptools' failed: Cannot find module '<path_to...>/vscode-cpptools/Extension/dist/main'
Require stack:
- /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/loader.js
- /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/bootstrap-amd.js
- /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/bootstrap-fork.js.

Replaced the path. But the rest of the message is "as is" so to speak.

[sean-mcmanus]

See https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md and https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/blob/main/Documentation/Building%20the%20Extension.md .

[wangzhankun]

I am ready with the pre-requisites: 1. checkout to release branch; 2. run yarn install

But after I press F5, I meet the same issue:

Activating extension 'ms-vscode.cpptools' failed: Cannot find module '/home/wang/Documents/github/vscode-cpptools/Extension/dist/main' Require stack: - /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/vs/loader.js - /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/bootstrap-amd.js - /usr/share/code/resources/app/out/bootstrap-fork.js - .

How to solve it?