How to set up debugging in GoLand?

Question

I am trying out GoLand and hear that the debugger is supposedly awesome, but I can’t find any documentation explaining how to set it up (GoLand is in preview stage, so that’s not really surprising). My use case: I am writing a REST API to which I send requests using curl. Could someone please tell me, step by step, how to get started with the debugger ?

[edit 1] (moved from comment) When I click Run/Debug (or Run/Run), a window is displayed, asking me to edit configurations. I am given a choice of several kinds of configurations, I try to choose "Go application" but the Debug button never is grayed and I can't get it to become clickable. I am very new to GoLand, I may be missing something obvious, but I can’t find whatever settings are missing.

[edit 2] It turns out that my workspace did not conform to the Go specifications : my code was not in a directory named src. Now that it is the case, I can click Run/Debug and GoLand seems to be doing the right thing, except it doesn’t stop at breakpoints or otherwise behave like a debugger, my code just runs.

[edit 3] Tried again, and it works. Sort of. I have no idea why it works now, even though it didn’t previously and I didn’t change anything. Now breakpoints work at some lines, and not at others. Or the debugger stops at the breakpoint, but I wait forever for the list of variables to be loaded. Well, it is a preview, after all...

[edit 4] I was notified just today that a new version of GoLand was available. I upgraded, and debugging is working well for me now.

Answer 1

GoLand will not enable the debug action (although run is available) if your code does not reside inside src. There is no warning about this, so it might be really a pain to solve this.

Additionally, depending on your project’s structure it might be possible, that debugging is still not working. In that case, it might help to remove all run configurations and create a new one. There’s is a bug report about this behavior.

PS: Although the OP mentions the first part in an edit of the question, but it think it’s worth mentioning in an answer.

Answer 2

Things changed in goland since @Jamillo Santos added his reply.

To start with, there's no more "Go Application".

The easiest way is to locate the file containing the main() function. There should be a small triangle pointing to it, like in the attached screenshot:

When you click on the small green triangle, you get a menu with Run/Debug options. Each will create a go build configuration.

You can edit that go build configuration and add the program arguments for your application. For example, if your program have a command line argument of --arg=value you can add it like this:

Answer 3

I was facing this same issue and I solved by using the "Go Application" configuration (at the Run/Debug Configurations window), instead of the "Go Single File" configuration.

So, go to the upper right corner of the Gogland and "Edit configurations".

Then, add a new configuration using the "Go Application" profile.

After saving, you should be able to debug your code. o/

An easy way to enable this configuration is to use the @user1793301 method and right click on the file you want to run and select "Debug 'go run .go'".

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POSSIBLE EXPLANATION

NOTICE: I did not look any further details about it.

Fact: "Go Application" configuration does build the binary executable before running it.

Fact: I could see looking at the console output (inside of the Goglang) is that the IDE uses the DLV as debugging tool.

Fact: I found a dlv debug at the DLV documentation and it seems to compile and debug the code.

Hypothesis: The guys from Jetbrains did not implement it. Or at least not YET.

Answer 4

On version 2019.1.1 there's no more Go Application. Use Go Build instead. Here I am debugging a single script file, but if you have a server app or smth, just point to the main app file:

Notice that in the Files field you have to specify the actual file path. You can put more files (if you want to have more starting points) by separating them with a pipe |. For each file you want to be able to debug, you need to specify the full path.

Again, if you are debugging a server app or something else, that has a single starting point, you only need the startup file specified in the config. :)

Answer 5

I had this exact problem.

Deleted and recreated the Debug run configuration. Debugging then worked perfectly.

Answer 6

I followed the following procedure to start my golang server in debug mode. (You might want to use some other method than creating a makefile for starting your server maybe)

1. Create a makefile
2. Define your server/worker startup command in the file
3. Run it by creating a new configuration for Makefile
4. Go to Run -> Attach to process -> choose your running server

This will attach the debugger to your process. Note:

• You might need to restart your server for this to work.
• The IDE will ask you to install gops, do install it. Without installing gops you won't see any running process.

Answer 7

I right click on project (main.go inside) and choose "Debug ..." and it work