Remote debugging with IBM Z Open Debug on IBM Developer for z/OS on VS Code

IBM Z® Open Debug is a remote debug interface to be used with z/OS® Debugger to debug z/OS COBOL, PL/I, and assembler applications in IBM Developer for z/OS on VS Code and Wazi for Dev Spaces IDEs.

Ensure that z/OS Debugger is installed and configured, and the IBM Z Open Debug is installed.

Before you start to debug, complete the following tasks:
  1. Set up for Z Open Debug.
  2. Prepare the environment for your application so that you can start the application under the control of z/OS Debugger. How you prepare your application environment will determine how you launch your application.
The workflow of how to use Z Open Debug is as follows:
  1. Build your application with debug options.
  2. Create or activate a debug profile.
  3. Launch your application based on how you prepared your application environment.
  4. Debug your application.

If you use Z Open Debug 3.0.0 or later on Dev Spaces with z/OS Debugger 15.0.4 or later, you can use a single action to activate a debug profile, launch and debug an application. You can also add the "preLaunchTask" attribute to specify a task that can build and deploy your application.

For more information about available debug features, see Overview of IBM® z/OS Debugger.

For known issues and limitations, see Known issues and limitations for Z Open Debug.