Debug a remote process

Debug a user-mode process on another machine. You run a Windows process server (dbgsrv) on the target; the debug engine and your symbols stay local.

flowchart LR
    subgraph host["YOUR MACHINE"]
        A["VS Code + dap-dbgeng<br/>dbgeng.dll + symbols<br/>run HERE"]
    end
    subgraph target["TARGET MACHINE"]
        B["dbgsrv.exe<br/>(process server)"]
        C["the process<br/>you debug"]
        B --- C
    end
    A <-->|"TCP / named pipe"| B

1. Start the process server on the target

dbgsrv -t tcp:port=5005

2. Configure launch.json

.vscode/launch.json

{
  "name": "Attach on TARGETPC",
  "type": "dbgeng",
  "request": "attach",
  "processId": 4321,
  "connectionString": "tcp:port=5005,server=TARGETPC"
}

• processId is the PID on the target machine. Set it to "${command:dap-dbgeng.pickProcess}" to pick from the processes running on the dbgsrv host at debug time.
• connectionString is tcp:port=<PORT>,server=<HOST>, matching dbgsrv and the target's hostname/IP.

Everything else works like a local attach. See attach attributes for all options.