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Attach to running processes with the Visual Studio debugger

  • Article

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

You can attach the Visual Studio debugger to a running process on a local or remote computer. After the process is running, select Debug > Attach to Process or press Ctrl+Alt+p in Visual Studio, and use the Attach to Process dialog to attach the debugger to the process.

You can use Attach to Process to debug running apps on local or remote computers, debug multiple processes simultaneously, debug apps that weren't created in Visual Studio, or debug any app you didn't start from Visual Studio with the debugger attached. For example, if you're running an app without the debugger and hit an exception, you can then attach the debugger to the process running the app and begin debugging.

Tip

Not sure whether to use Attach to Process for your debugging scenario? See Common debugging scenarios.

Attach to a running process on your local machine

To quickly reattach to a process you attached to previously, see Reattach to a process.

To attach to a process on your local computer:

  1. In Visual Studio, select Debug > Attach to Process (or press Ctrl+Alt+P) to open the Attach to Process dialog box.

  2. Check the Connection type.

    In most scenarios, you can use Default. Some scenarios may require a different connection type. For more info, see other sections in this article or Common debugging scenarios.

  3. Set the Connection target to your local machine name.

  4. In the Available processes list, find and select the process or processes you want to attach to.

    • To quickly select a process, type its name or first letter in the Filter processes box.

    • If you don't know the process name, browse through the list, or see Common debugging scenarios for some common process names.

    Tip

    Processes can start and stop in the background while the Attach to Process dialog box is open, so the list of running processes may not always be current. You can select Refresh at any time to see the current list.

  5. In the Attach to field, make sure the type of code you plan to debug is listed. The default Automatic setting works for most app types.

    If you are using the Default connection type, you can manually select the type of code you want to attach to. Otherwise, the Select option may be disabled.

    To select code types manually:

    1. Click Select.
    2. In the Select Code Type dialog box, select Debug these code types. If you experience a failure when you try to attach to a process in the list, you can use the Select Code Type dialog box to help troubleshoot the issue.
    3. Select the code types you want to debug.
    4. Select OK.

  6. Select Attach.

Note

You can be attached to multiple apps for debugging, but only one app is active in the debugger at a time. You can set the active app in the Visual Studio Debug Location toolbar or Processes window.

Attach to a process on a remote computer

You can also select a remote computer in the Attach to Process dialog box, view a list of available processes running on that computer, and attach to one or more of the processes for debugging. The remote debugger (msvsmon.exe) must be running on the remote computer. For more information, see Remote debugging.

For more complete instructions for debugging ASP.NET applications that have been deployed to IIS, see Remote debugging ASP.NET on a remote IIS computer.

To attach to a running process on a remote computer:

  1. In Visual Studio, select Debug > Attach to Process (or press Ctrl+Alt+P) to open the Attach to Process dialog box.

  2. Check the Connection type.

    In most scenarios, you can use Default. Some scenarios, such as debugging Linux or a containerized app, require a different connection type. For more info, see other sections in this article or Common debugging scenarios.

  3. In the Connection target box, select the remote computer, using one of the following methods:

    • Select the drop-down arrow next to Connection target, and select the computer name from the drop-down list.

    • Type the computer name in the Connection target box and press Enter.

      Verify that Visual Studio adds the required port to the computer name, which appears in the format: <remote computer name>:port

      Note

      If you can't connect using the remote computer name, try using the IP and port address (for example, 123.45.678.9:4022). 4022 is the default port for the Visual Studio 2017 remote debugger. For other remote debugger port assignments, see Remote debugger port assignments.

    • Select the Find button next to the Connection target box to open the Remote Connections dialog box. The Remote Connections dialog box lists all the devices that are on your local subnet or directly attached to your computer. You may need to open UDP port 3702 on the server to discover remote devices. Select the computer or device you want, and then click Select.

    Note

    The Connection type setting persists between debugging sessions. The Connection target setting persists between debugging sessions only if a successful debugging connection occurred with that target.

  4. Click Refresh to populate the Available processes list.

    Tip

    Processes can start and stop in the background while the Attach to Process dialog box is open, so the list of running processes may not always be current. You can select Refresh at any time to see the current list.

  5. In the Available processes list, find and select the process or processes you want to attach to.

  6. In the Attach to field, make sure the type of code you plan to debug is listed. The default Automatic setting works for most app types.

    If you are using the Default connection type, you can manually select the type of code you want to attach to. Otherwise, the Select option may be disabled.

    To select code types manually:

    1. Click Select.
    2. In the Select Code Type dialog box, select Debug these code types. If you experience a failure when you try to attach to a process in the list, you can use the Select Code Type dialog box to help troubleshoot the issue.
    3. Select OK.

  7. Select Attach.

Note

You can be attached to multiple apps for debugging, but only one app is active in the debugger at a time. You can set the active app in the Visual Studio Debug Location toolbar or Processes window.

In some cases, when you debug in a Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) session, the Available processes list won't display all available processes. If you are running Visual Studio as a user who has a limited user account, the Available processes list won't show processes that are running in Session 0. Session 0 is used for services and other server processes, including w3wp.exe. You can solve the problem by running Visual Studio under an administrator account or by running Visual Studio from the server console instead of a Terminal Services session.

If neither of those workarounds is possible, a third option is to attach to the process by running vsjitdebugger.exe -p <ProcessId> from the Windows command line. You can determine the process ID using tlist.exe. To obtain tlist.exe, download and install Debugging Tools for Windows, available at WDK and WinDbg downloads.

Attach to a .NET Core process running on Linux using SSH

For more information, see Remote debug .NET Core running on Linux using SSH.

Reattach to a process

You can quickly reattach to processes that you were previously attached to by choosing Debug > Reattach to Process (Shift+Alt+P). When you choose this command, the debugger will immediately try to attach to the last processes you attached to by first attempting to match the previous process ID and if that fails, by matching to the previous process name. If no matches are found, or if several processes have the same name, the Attach to Process dialog box will open so you can select the correct process.

Note

The Reattach to Process command is available starting in Visual Studio 2017.

Common debugging scenarios

To help you determine whether to use Attach to Process and what process to attach to, the following table shows a few common debugging scenarios, with links to more instructions where available. (The list is not exhaustive.)

For some app types, like Universal Windows App (UWP) apps, you don't attach directly to a process name, but use the Debug Installed App Package menu option in Visual Studio instead (see table).

For the debugger to attach to code written in C++, the code needs to emit DebuggableAttribute. You can add this to your code automatically by linking with the /ASSEMBLYDEBUG linker option.

For client-side script debugging, script debugging must be enabled in the browser. For debugging client-side script on Chrome, choose JavaScript (Chrome) or JavaScript (Microsoft Edge - Chromium) as the code type, and depending on your app type, you may need to close all Chrome instances and start the browser in debugging mode (type chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222 from a command line). In earlier versions of Visual Studio, the script debugger for Chrome was Web kit.

To quickly select a running process to attach to, in Visual Studio, type Ctrl+Alt+P, and then type the first letter of the process name.

Scenario Debug method Process name Notes and links
ASP.NET Core - Remote debug on IIS server Use remote tools and Attach to Process w3wp.exe or dotnet.exe Starting in .NET Core 3, the w3wp.exe process is used for the default in-app hosting model. For app deployment, see Publish to IIS. For more detailed information, see Remote debugging ASP.NET Core on a remote IIS computer
ASP.NET Core - Debug on the local machine after you start the app without the debugger Use Attach to Process iiexpress.exe This may be helpful to make your app load faster, such as (for example) when profiling.
ASP.NET 4 or 4.5 - Remote debug on an IIS server Use remote tools and Attach to Process w3wp.exe See Remote debugging ASP.NET on a remote IIS computer
Client-side script - Debug on a local IIS server, for supported app types Use Attach to Process chrome.exe, MicrosoftEdgeCP.exe, or iexplore.exe Script debugging must be enabled. For Chrome, you must also run Chrome in debug mode (type chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222 from a command line) and select JavaScript (Chrome) in the Attach to field.
C#, Visual Basic, or C++ app - Debug on the local machine Use either standard debugging (F5) or Attach to Process <appname>.exe In most scenarios, use standard debugging and not Attach to Process.
Windows desktop app - Remote debug Remote tools N/A See Remote debug a C# or Visual Basic app or Remote debug a C++ app
.NET Core on Linux - Debug Use Attach to Process dotnet.exe or a unique process name To use SSH, see Remote debug .NET Core running on Linux using SSH. For containerized apps, see Attach to a process running in a Docker container.
Containerized app - Debug Use Attach to Process dotnet.exe or a unique process name See Attach to a process running in a Docker container
Python on Linux - Remote debug Use Attach to Process debugpy See Attach remotely from Python Tools
Other supported app types - Debug on a server process If server is remote, use remote tools, and Attach to Process chrome.exe, iexplore.exe, or other processes If necessary, use Resource Monitor to help identify the process. See Remote debugging.
Universal Windows App (UWP), OneCore, HoloLens, or IoT app - Remote debug Debug installed app package N/A See Debug an installed app package instead of using Attach to Process
Universal Windows App (UWP), OneCore, HoloLens, or IoT - Debug an app that you didn't start from Visual Studio Debug installed app package N/A See Debug an installed app package instead of using Attach to Process

Use debugger features

To use the full features of the Visual Studio debugger (like hitting breakpoints) when attaching to a process, the app must exactly match your local source and symbols. That is, the debugger must be able to load the correct symbol (.pdb) files. By default, this requires a debug build.

For remote debugging scenarios, you must have the source code (or a copy of the source code) already open in Visual Studio. The compiled app binaries on the remote machine must come from the same build as on the local machine.

In some local debugging scenarios, you can debug in Visual Studio with no access to the source if the correct symbol files are present with the app. By default, this requires a debug build. For more information, see Specify symbol and source files.

Troubleshoot attach errors

In some scenarios, the debugger may need help to correctly identify the type of code to debug. If the connection values are set correctly (you can view the correct process in the Available processes list), but the debugger fails to attach, try to select the most appropriate connection type in the Connection type list, which may be required, for example, if you are debugging a Linux or Python app. If you are using the Default connection type, then you can alternatively select the specific type of code to connect to, as described later in this section.

When the debugger attaches to a running process, the process can contain one or more types of code. The code types the debugger can attach to are displayed and selected in the Select Code Type dialog box.

Sometimes, the debugger can successfully attach to one code type, but not to another code type. Typically, this occurs when:

  • You try to attach to a process that is running on a remote computer. The remote computer might have remote debugging components installed for some code types but not for others.
  • You try to attach to two or more processes for direct database debugging. SQL debugging supports attaching to a single process only.

If the debugger is able to attach to some, but not all, code types, you see a message identifying which types failed to attach.

If the debugger successfully attaches to at least one code type, you can proceed to debug the process. You will be able to debug only the code types that were successfully attached. The unattached code in the process will still run, but you won't be able to set breakpoints, view data, or perform other debugging operations on that code.

If you want more specific information about why the debugger failed to attach to a code type, try to reattach to only that code type.

To obtain specific information about why a code type failed to attach:

  1. Detach from the process. On the Debug menu, select Detach All.

  2. Reattach to the process, selecting only the code type that failed to attach.

    1. In the Attach to Process dialog box, select the process in the Available processes list.

    2. Select Select.

    3. In the Select Code Type dialog box, select Debug these code types and the code type that failed to attach. Deselect the other code types.

    4. Select OK.

    5. In the Attach to Process dialog box, select Attach.

    This time, the attach will fail completely, and you will get a specific error message.

See also