Getting started

To debug you need two things: the PawnPro extension in your editor and the debugger plugin in your server. The extension handles everything when a session starts (recompiling, launching the server, connecting) — the only manual step is putting the plugin in the server, once.

1. Download the plugin

Grab the plugin binary from the releases page:

• Linux: pawnpro_debug.so
• Windows: pawnpro_debug.dll

2. Put it in the server

Copy the file into the right folder of your server:

• SA-MP: plugins/pawnpro_debug.so, and add pawnpro_debug to the plugins line of server.cfg.
• open.mp: components/pawnpro_debug.so.

Do not rename the file

The name must be pawnpro_debug (.so on Linux, .dll on Windows). The extension looks for the plugin by exactly that name; under any other name, debugging will not start.

The extension only checks

On startup the extension verifies that the plugin is present and warns if it is missing — it does not install anything into your server.

3. Debug

Open your gamemode's .pwn in the editor (with the PawnPro extension) and press F5. Set breakpoints in the gutter and debug as usual. The extension recompiles the gamemode with -d3 (the debug block, carrying lines and symbols) before launching the server — without it there are no breakpoints and no inspection.

While execution is paused the server is frozen: expected on a local development server.

Example launch.json

{
  "type": "pawn",
  "request": "launch",
  "name": "Debug gamemode",
  "program": "${workspaceFolder}/gamemodes/mygm.amx"
}

Next step

See Features for what you can do while paused — call stack, inspecting and editing variables, data breakpoints, the memory hex view and automatic pausing on runtime errors.