Debug in Neovim

There are many different plugins that can be used to debug Rust code in Neovim. This guide will show you how to set up nvim-dap and some additional plugins to debug Tauri application.

Prerequisites

nvim-dap extension requires codelldb binary. Download the version for your system from https://github.com/vadimcn/codelldb/releases and unzip it. We will point to it later in the nvim-dap configuration.

Configuring nvim-dap

Install nvim-dap and nvim-dap-ui plugins. Follow the instructions provided on their github pages or simply use your favourite plugin manager. Note that nvim-dap-ui requires nvim-nio plugin.

Next, setup the plugin in your Neovim configuration:

init.lua

local dap = require("dap")

dap.adapters.codelldb = {
  type = 'server',
  port = "${port}",
  executable = {
    -- Change this to your path!
    command = '/opt/codelldb/adapter/codelldb',
    args = {"--port", "${port}"},
  }
}

dap.configurations.rust= {
  {
    name = "Launch file",
    type = "codelldb",
    request = "launch",
    program = function()
      return vim.fn.input('Path to executable: ', vim.fn.getcwd() .. '/target/debug/', 'file')
    end,
    cwd = '${workspaceFolder}',
    stopOnEntry = false
  },
}

This setup will ask you to point to the Tauri App binary you want to debug each time you lanuch the debugger.

Optionally, you can setup nvim-dap-ui plugin to toggle debugger view automatically each time debugging session starts and stops:

init.lua

local dapui = require("dapui")
dapui.setup()

dap.listeners.before.attach.dapui_config = function()
  dapui.open()
end
dap.listeners.before.launch.dapui_config = function()
  dapui.open()
end
dap.listeners.before.event_terminated.dapui_config = function()
  dapui.close()
end
dap.listeners.before.event_exited.dapui_config = function()
  dapui.close()
end

Lastly, you can change the default way the breakpoints are displayed in the editor:

init.lua

vim.fn.sign_define('DapBreakpoint',{ text ='🟥', texthl ='', linehl ='', numhl =''})
vim.fn.sign_define('DapStopped',{ text ='▶️', texthl ='', linehl ='', numhl =''})

Starting the dev server

Since we’re not using Tauri CLI to launch the app the development server will not start automatically. To control the state of development server from Neovim you can use the overseer plugin.

Best way to control tasks running in background is to use VS Code style task configuration. To do this create a .vscode/tasks.json file in the projects directory.

You can find example task configuration for project using trunk below.

.vscode/tasks.json

{
  "version": "2.0.0",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "type": "process",
      "label": "dev server",
      "command": "trunk",
      "args": ["serve"],
      "isBackground": true,
      "presentation": {
        "revealProblems": "onProblem"
      },
      "problemMatcher": {
        "pattern": {
          "regexp": "^error:.*",
          "file": 1,
          "line": 2
        },
        "background": {
          "activeOnStart": false,
          "beginsPattern": ".*Rebuilding.*",
          "endsPattern": ".*server listening at:.*"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Example key bindings

Below you can find example key bindings to start and control debugging sessions.

init.lua

vim.keymap.set('n', '<F5>', function() dap.continue() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<F6>', function() dap.disconnect({ terminateDebuggee = true }) end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<F10>', function() dap.step_over() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<F11>', function() dap.step_into() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<F12>', function() dap.step_out() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>b', function() dap.toggle_breakpoint() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>o', function() overseer.toggle() end)
vim.keymap.set('n', '<Leader>R', function() overseer.run_template() end)