Debugging Go with VS Code and Delve: A Comprehensive Guide

Debugging is an essential part of the development process, and having a reliable and efficient code editor is crucial. One of the best code editors out there is Visual Studio Code (VS Code) by Microsoft. Its speed, stability, and extensibility make it an ideal choice for developers. If you’re a Go developer using VS Code, you might be wondering how to debug your Go programs. Fortunately, it’s super easy with Delve, a powerful debugger made specifically for Go by Derek Parker.

To get started with debugging Go in VS Code, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps. First, make sure you have the official Go extension installed. You can find it here. Additionally, ensure that your $GOPATH is properly configured. You can find detailed instructions on how to set up your $GOPATH here.

Next, you’ll need to install Delve. On Linux or Windows, simply execute the command “Go: Install/Update Tools.” For Mac users, you can install Delve through Brew by typing brew install go-delve/delve/delve in your favorite shell (preferably zsh). Brew will handle the self-signing process for you.

Once Delve is installed, you need to set up the debugger configuration. Click on the VS Code debug menu and select “Start debugging,” or simply press F5. This will generate a launch.json file in the .vscode directory at the root of your workspace. The generated configuration should work out of the box for local debugging. Here’s an example configuration:

{
 "version": "0.2.0",
 "configurations": [
     {
         "name": "Launch",
         "type": "go",
         "request": "launch",
         "mode": "debug",
         "remotePath": "",
         "port": 2345,
         "host": "127.0.0.1",
         "program": "${fileDirname}",
         "env": {},
         "args": [],
         "showLog": true
     }
 ]
}

As mentioned in the documentation, you can set the mode parameter to “debug” to compile and debug the current program, “test” to debug tests (you can pass the -test.run flag and the test name as arguments to debug a single test), “exec” to run a pre-built binary specified in the program field, or “remote” to enable remote debugging. For more information on remote debugging, refer to the official documentation on Remote Debugging.

If you encounter any issues while setting up the debugger, you can refer to the troubleshooting section in the documentation here.

Once you have everything set up, you’re ready to use Delve to debug your Go programs in VS Code. The integrated debugger offers a range of features, including local and global variable inspection, the ability to watch specific variables, a call stack visualization, and breakpoints. What’s great about debugging Go is that the standard library is clean, well-documented, and readable. By diving into the code and stepping into library calls, you can gain a deeper understanding of how things work internally.

So, don’t be afraid to embrace the power of debugging with VS Code and Delve. It’s an invaluable tool that can help you resolve issues, understand code flow, and become a more proficient Go developer. Happy debugging!