Test Debug Broken | Windows, GDB, Native Debug, Individual Unit Tests

rust-analyzer version: rust-analyzer version: 0.3.2345-standalone (b0632f749e 2025-03-16)

rustc version: rustc 1.85.0 (4d91de4e4 2025-02-17)

editor or extension: VSCode, extension version v0.3.2345

relevant settings: "rust-analyzer.debug.engine": "webfreak.debug"

I'm using GDB on Windows 11 Pro. I have been fighting to make the various debug interfaces work so I could step through rust code and use breakpoints like normal.

After some time I found that the Native Debug engine choice made the internal settings a little less default-to-llvm, so I changed to that. Once that was done, the Debug button next to the main() function began to work, and I could generally do debugging. However, pressing the Debug button next to the unit test did not work.

After entirely too much troubleshooting, I was able to determine the issue was that the test executable was being passed a test name that was mangled by the quote() function such that it didn't actually parse to the right unit test. Any instances of :: in the test name passed would be replaced with :\: (iirc, might have been :\\:). I ... wonder if this interacts with the default terminal somehow. Anyhow, on my system it does not work and the test doesn't debug.

I was able to monkeypatch out the quote() function's replacement operation by editing the compiled Javascript, and now individual unit tests work on my system.

See: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-analyzer/blob/32fa60f3a64708a579996bfad4fe04b895f9d156/editors/code/src/debug.ts#L408

It looks like the purpose of the function is to format any argument list so it's compatible with the shell. I'd like to know the use-case, expected input -> output, etc. I can't quite tell if the system it's fed to will even care about special characters. Is it passed to a debug provider registered by the Native Debug extension? Is that how this all works? (There's some documentation about it not needing escaping here: https://github.com/WebFreak001/code-debug?tab=readme-ov-file#extra-debugger-arguments apparently.) I've done a lot of code-sleuthing already; I assume someone knows the deep magic of this area better.

I am suggesting investigating removing the quote() code, or replacing it with a join() if needed. I don't have an llvm setup so I have no way of knowing if other systems would be broken by this.

Start in editors/code/src/debug.ts around line 408 and inspect how quote() formats the individual unit-test name for the Native Debug engine. Reproduce the Windows/GDB case with the Debug action beside a unit test, compare it with debugging main(), and verify that the test executable receives a usable test name without breaking other debugger argument handling.