Search code examples
rdebuggingvisual-studio-codevscode-debugger

VSC R debug console not reacting to input from user

I am debugging an R script in VSC. This script logs to Google API, so it prompts the user to select a pre-authorized account from a menu:

1: email1@email1.com
2: email2@email2.com

The problem is that after entering the menu option (1, in my case) and entering Enter in the DEBUG CONSOLE, the script doesn't continue even when the input is accepted and displayed in the console.

You can see an image of the DEBUG CONSOLE here: enter image description here

As you can see, nothing happens after entering a menu option (when I debug this code in PyCharm, the script does continue after entering 1)

Solution

  • The VSCode-R-Debugger starts and controls R programs by sending input to stdin of the child process. To take input in debug mode you have to enter the data in the debug console and prefix it with ###stdin. The feature is described via the following Github request and marked as resolved. I was able to use the following example code to confirm the solution is current and works as described:

    #!/usr/bin/env Rscript

typeline <- function(msg = "Enter text: ") {
  if (interactive()) {
    txt <- readline(msg)
  } else {
    cat(msg)
    
    txt <- readLines("stdin", n = 1)
    
  }
  return(txt)
}

txt = typeline("your first message: ")
print(txt)
txt2 = typeline("your second message: ")
print(txt2)

    If we set a breakpoint on lines 5 or 9, we can then receive stdin input by typing ###stdin 5 in the debug console. See the image below.

    I am hoping this points you in the right direction. I was able to reproduce the behavior you describe and address the problem using the guidance in the feature request below:

    Take care and stay safe.

    References:

    https://github.com/ManuelHentschel/VSCode-R-Debugger/pull/46

    Debug COnsole Image

    Session Info:

    sessionInfo()
List of 13
_names: chr [1:13] "R.version" "platform" "locale" "running" "RNGkind" "basePkgs" ...
_class:"sessionInfo"
__unclass():List of 13
R.version:List of 14
platform:"x86_64-apple-darwin21.1.0 (64-bit)"
locale:"en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8"
running:"macOS Monterey 12.1"
RNGkind: chr [1:3] "Mersenne-Twister" "Inversion" "Rejection"
basePkgs: chr [1:7] "stats" "graphics" "grDevices" "utils" "datasets" "methods" ...
otherPkgs:List of 1
loadedOnly:List of 6
matprod:"default"
BLAS:"/usr/local/Cellar/openblas/0.3.19/lib/libopenblasp-r0.3.19.dylib"
LAPACK:"/usr/local/Cellar/r/4.1.2/lib/R/lib/libRlapack.dylib"
system.codepage:"NULL"
codepage:"NULL"