VSCode Remote Assembly Debugging on UCDavis CSIF Computers

Debug your assembly code remotely and graphically on CSIF with VS Code graphic debug interface on your local machine!

5-min Quick Setup

Open VS Code
Click the little green button in the bottom-left corner of the window to open Remote - SSH extension
Click Remote-SSH: Connect to Host...
Select csif if you configured Passwordless Login to CSIF
- If not, in the textbox prompted, enter username@pcXX.cs.ucdavis.edu (you need to replace username and XX), press enter, and then enter your password for CSIF
Wait for VS Code to install VS Code Server on CSIF automatically
- VS Code Server will be installed in /home/username/.vscode-server so other users don't have access to it
- Retry if you get any error
Install VS Code Extension C/C++ by Microsoft
- This will install the extension on VS Code Server on CSIF instead of your local machine
- There is no assembly debugger available, but the config of the C/C++ extension will be modified to make it work with assembly
Open an integrated terminal inside VS Code (Terminal Menu -> New Terminal)
- You should notice that this terminal is already connected to the CSIF
Run the following command inside the integrated terminal

git clone --depth=1 --branch=master https://github.com/HazyFish/ucdavis-csif-vscode-asm-dbg.git assembly
- This command transfers the folder with configiration files and a sample assembly code file (written by me) to CSIF
Run command rm -rf ./assembly/.git to remove unnecessary files generated by git
Run command code ./assembly to open the folder in VS Code
You are all almost there! Let's try it out!

Click hello.s on the left to open the sample assembly code file
Go to Terminal Menu -> Run Build Task... to build the executable from the currently opened file
- You should be able to see the output of assembler and linker in the integrated terminal
- The executable hello.out is built
Go to Run Menu -> Start Debugging to start debugging the file you opened
- You will see a segmentation fault because you haven't set a breakpoint yet
- You can add breakpoints in the Breakpoints panel on the left of the window, such as _start and done
- You can add expressions in the Watch panel on the left of the window to watch the values, such as $eax and (int)a
Go to Terminal Menu -> Run Task... -> clean all to remove all the object files and executables inside the folder
You are all set! You can put any assembly code files in this folder (or subfolder) to debug in this way!
- Make sure to open the assembly file you want to build/debug before running the tasks or debugging!
To disconnect VS Code from CSIF, click the little green button on the bottom left and select Close Remote Connection

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