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javamysqlnetbeansremote-debuggingexecutable-jar

How to debug a jar remotely from netbeans

I'm trying to figure out how to debug my jar that is running remotely. Here is my scenario:

  • My .jar will be running from a VPS. This jar basically runs a server for a game, so it also connects to a mysql db. I start the server with 3 .bat files that looks something like this:

    set CLASSPATH=.;dist\aries.jar;dist\mina-core.jar;dist\slf4j-api.jar;dist\slf4j-jdk14.jar;dist\mysql-connector-java-bin.jar

    java -Xmx500m -Dwzpath=wz\ -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=filename.keystore -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=passwd -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=filename.keystore -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=passwd net.world.WorldServer

    pause

What I want to do is start the server on the vps like normal, but debugging the server on my local machine via Netbeans IDE. I don't know if this is possible because people will be connecting to the server (although, I will be debugging a test server which will only have me online).

Note: I have done a lot of searching before coming here and a lot of what I found had to do with using xdebug & php which has doesn't have much to do with my situation (I don't think)

-Thanks

Solution

  • There's a NetBeans FAQ page about this.

    In brief:

    Add the remote debugging options to your Java command. For example:

    -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,address=8888,suspend=n

    Then, use the attach debugger option in NetBeans and select your server and the port you used above (8888). It's pretty much that easy.

    You may want to think about network and firewall considerations, as you may have noticed there are no passwords involved, so anyone who can connect to the port can debug your app. This could be a big security risk. Your VPS provider probably has some tools to help with setting up a secure, private connection.