Support to attach to an electron spawned node process using the picker

[egamma]

Currently you cannot attach to an electron spawned node process like the TypeScript server using the picker, that is using a launch config like:

        {
            "type": "node",
            "request": "attach",
            "name": "Attach to process",
            "processId": "${command:PickProcess}",
            "port": 5859,
            "protocol": "legacy"

        }

[auchenberg]

Is this because the new process isn't exposed over the HTTP debug interface? This Node issue could be related: nodejs/node#9435

[weinand]

@auchenberg previous versions of Electron did not support the SIGUSR1 approach of bringing node into debug mode (even if it was not launched with a --debug or --inspect flag).

[weinand]

There is still no support for SIGUSR1 in the node version (v7.9) that is built into our version of Electron.

[weinand]

With the new vscode-processes extension and the option to start all processes in inspect mode, this feature is now in reach.

[weinand]

@RMacfarlane Since you now own the VS Code process viewer (#41045) I took the liberty to assign this feature request to you.

[Tyriar]

I own the process explorer now but I think this aligns more with one of the debug area owners, I'd be more than willing to review a PR though.

Here is the process explorer context menu code:

vscode/src/vs/code/electron-sandbox/processExplorer/processExplorerMain.ts

Line 426 in a3cb14b

private showContextMenu(item: ProcessItem, isLocal: boolean) {

[connor4312]

For a while js-debug has been able to debug ext host child processes by setting attachToChildProcesses: true in the launch config. I think that covers this scenario at least from a user POV. I haven't seen feature requests otherwise for how to debug electron node processes, and as this hasn't had any other community input, I will close as unplanned for the moment.