SEP - Debug engine unable to locate source file

[heymchri]

I'm trying to debug a program that was compiled from a STMF. Source has been deployed to the IFS, program was compiled from that STMF.
However, after setting the SEP, when the program gets executed, the debug window shows:

Could not load source '/home/HEYMCHR/builds/xa/crm/qrpglesrc/imc71m0r - Load buffer from database.pgm.rpgle': EQARD1066E The debug engine could not locate the source or listing file /home/HEYMCHR/builds/xa/crm/qrpglesrc/imc71m0r - Load buffer from database.pgm.rpgle.

Program info shows:

Streamfile is in the IFS in this location:

Why can't the debugger find this source?

I have attached the trace file (DAP.txt) - no EPDC.txt file was generated.

PDT_DAAS_20250307_171113_0349_2_DAP.txt

Context	Version
Code for IBM i version	2.15.2
Visual Studio Code version	1.97.2
Operating System	darwin_arm64

Active extensions

.NET Install Tool (vscode-dotnet-runtime): 2.2.8
Amazon Q (amazon-q-vscode): 1.50.0
C# (csharp): 2.63.32
C# Dev Kit (csdevkit): 1.16.6
CL (vscode-clle): 1.1.7
COBOL (cobol): 25.3.3
Code for IBM i Walkthroughs (vscode-ibmi-walkthroughs): 0.5.0
Configuration Editing (configuration-editing): 1.0.0
Db2 for IBM i (vscode-db2i): 1.9.3
Debugger for Java (vscode-java-debug): 0.58.1
Dev Containers (remote-containers): 0.401.0
Docker (vscode-docker): 1.29.4
Emmet (emmet): 1.0.0
Error Lens (errorlens): 3.24.0
Excel Viewer (gc-excelviewer): 4.2.63
Git (git): 1.0.0
Git Base (git-base): 1.0.0
GitHub (github): 0.0.1
GitHub Authentication (github-authentication): 0.0.2
GitLess (gitless): 11.7.2
Gradle for Java (vscode-gradle): 3.16.4
Grunt support for VS Code (grunt): 1.0.0
Gulp support for VSCode (gulp): 1.0.0
IBM i Debug (ibmidebug): 2.0.2
JSON Language Features (json-language-features): 1.0.0
Jake support for VS Code (jake): 1.0.0
Jira and Bitbucket (Atlassian Labs) (atlascode): 3.4.12
Language Support for Java(TM) by Red Hat (java): 1.40.0
Live Preview (live-server): 0.4.15
Merge Conflict (merge-conflict): 1.0.0
Microsoft Account (microsoft-authentication): 0.0.1
NPM support for VS Code (npm): 1.0.1
Node Debug Auto-attach (debug-auto-launch): 1.0.0
Overtype (overtype): 0.5.0
Prettier - Code formatter (prettier-vscode): 11.0.0
Print (vscode-print): 1.2.1
Project Manager for Java (vscode-java-dependency): 0.24.1
RPGLE (vscode-rpgle): 0.28.6
Server Ready Action (debug-server-ready): 1.0.0
Source Orbit (vscode-sourceorbit): 1.0.2
TODO Highlight (vscode-todo-highlight): 1.0.5
Task Buttons (vscode-task-buttons): 1.1.3
Test Runner for Java (vscode-java-test): 0.43.0
TypeScript and JavaScript Language Features (typescript-language-features): 1.0.0
YAML (vscode-yaml): 1.17.0
vscode-icons (vscode-icons): 12.11.0

---

Remote system

Setting	Value
IBM i OS	V7R5M0
Tech Refresh	5
CCSID Origin	37
Runtime CCSID	37
Default CCSID	37
SSHD CCSID	?
cqsh	true
SQL	Enabled
Source dates	Enabled

Enabled features

/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin	/usr/bin	/QSYS.lib/ILEDITOR.lib	/QSYS.LIB	/QIBM/ProdData/IBMiDebugService/bin	/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk80	/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk11	/QOpenSys/QIBM/ProdData/JavaVM/jdk17
bash	attr	GETNEWLIBL.PGM	QZDFMDB2.PGM	startDebugService.sh	64bit	64bit	64bit
chsh	iconv
git	setccsid
ls	tar
md5sum	uname
sort
stat

Shell env

BUILDLIB=QGPL
CURLIB=QGPL
HOME=/home/HEYMCHR
HOST=usalid50.infor.com
LIBLS=HEYMCHR QTEMP QGPL
LOGIN=heymchr
LOGNAME=heymchr
MAIL=/var/spool/mail/heymchr
OLDPWD=/home/HEYMCHR
PATH=/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin:/QOpenSys/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/QOpenSys/usr/bin/X11:/usr/sbin:.:/usr/bin:/QOpenSys/usr/bin:/usr/bin
PWD=/home/HEYMCHR
SHELL=/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/bash
SHLVL=1
SSH_CLIENT=10.61.4.120 59186 22
SSH_CONNECTION=10.61.4.120 59186 10.39.117.78 22
TGTRLS=*CURRENT
TZ=<EST>5<EDT>,M3.2.0,M11.1.0
USER=heymchr
USERNAME=heymchr
WORKDIR=/home/HEYMCHR
_=/QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/env

Variants

{
  "american": "#@$",
  "local": "#@$"
}

[mkwan01]

@heymchri If you have RDi on your system, you can try to debug the same program in RDi and reports whether RDi can debug this program.

Is the IFS file "imc71m0r - Load buffer from database.pgm.rpgle" a symbolic link to another file? The problem could be related to the empty space characters in the file name, or some special properties of the file (e.g. a symlink). The problem may also exist in RDi. That is why we want to verify the RDi behaviour.

[heymchri]

Hi @mkwan01 - I have 6 days left on my trial RDi license 😉 - debug works fine there.
(I tested with another program than the one I originally tested with - this is just a plain IFS file, not a local git file that I deployed to the IFS)
The IFS file is a plain file, not a symlink:
-rw-r--r-- 1 heymchr 0 2255 Mar 7 18:14 'chgdecfmt- change decimal format of dspf_prtf.pgm.clle'
 

I renamed the file, replacing all spaces with underscore characters, and then all works OK in VS Code.
When I added a single space in a random location in the file name, it failed again in VS Code.
In RDi, all cases worked OK.

[mkwan01]

This issue should be related with the empty space character in the IFS path name. We will try to fix it in the next release of debug service.

[heymchri]

@mkwan01 I retested this with Debug Service v3 - same issue still exists.

[mkwan01]

@heymchri This issue is not fixed in v3 debug service. The problem may be in a dependent component that is outside of the IBM i code. We need more time for diagnosis and communication.

[heymchri]

Hi @mkwan01 , has any progress been made towards a fix for this?

[mkwan01]

@heymchri As this one has a dependency on an external component, the fix will not be included in the coming debug service PTF update, which is planned in mid-September.

[mkwan01]

I performed a deeper investigation and identified problems in multiple components for the support of empty spaces in IFS file names. System debug (STRDBG) also fails with this test. We need to fix the problem in system debug first. Then we also need to fix another problem in RDi debug server. The system debug team is trying to fix the problem on their side right now.

[mkwan01]

The fact that RDi works is because RDi has a different UI-only code path, which downloads the IFS source to local client and associates the downloaded source with the debug session. It is difficult to copy the RDi solution to debug service, as it depends on some UI facilities not available in the debug service. We will use the normal solution and let system debug fix the underlying problem first.

[heymchri]

Thanks for the update. We're eagerly awaiting a fix for this issue as all our source files will have spaces in their names as we are migrating our proprietary source control system to git. That project is now on hold.