launch.json does not pickup a seondary launchConfigurationId from Properties/launchSettings.JSON

[patoJamriska]

Trying to debug an application using different environment variables for the use use of appSettings.env.json i.e.:

"environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
}

does not pick up a secondary profile. So I can have a Development env and a UAT env but it only picks up the first one when I hit debug. Same thing happens on Compounds:

launch.json sample:

{
"version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
      {
        "name": "MyAppDev",
        "type": "dotnet",
        "request": "launch",
        "projectPath": "${workspaceFolder}/MyApp/MyApp.csproj",
        "launchConfigurationId": "TargetFramework=;MyAppDev"
      },
      {
        "name": "MyAppUAT",
        "type": "dotnet",
        "request": "launch",
        "projectPath": "${workspaceFolder}/MyApp/MyApp.csproj",
        "launchConfigurationId": "TargetFramework=;MyAppUAT"
      },
]
}

LaunchSettings.Json sample:

{
  "$schema": "http://json.schemastore.org/launchsettings.json",
  "profiles": {
    "MyAppDev": {
      "commandName": "Project",
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "clients",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development",
      },
      "applicationUrl": "https://localhost:44334"
    }
    "MyAppUAT": {
      "commandName": "Project",
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "clients",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "UAT",
      },
      "applicationUrl": "https://localhost:44334"
    }
  }
}

If the CSharp: Report an issue command doesn't appear, make sure that you have C# extension version 1.17.0 or newer installed.

Environment data

VS Code version: 1.93.1 (Universal)
C# Extension version: current latest and Pre-release versions

Steps to reproduce

1. go to Debug
2. select profile 1, run, it loads c# app on development.
3. select profile 2, run, it loads c# app still on development instead of UAT

Expected behavior

the UI will pick the correct profile to launch

Additional context

This was working on a few versions ago, but I didnt had to use vscode on this project for a while until recently that realized it was not picking up my other environments.

[WardenGnaw]

@patoJamriska Do you have C# Dev Kit installed?

launchConfigurationId was not intended to really be saved in a launch.json but was supposed to be used by the dynamic configuration provider which is used internally by the resolver in C# Dev Kit.

The dotnet debug type only supports using projectPath if you are using launch.json

[stewartadam]

@WardenGnaw I had a similar issue to @patoJamriska because the documentation isn't very clear on this. Is launchSettingsProfile property on a launch configuration in .vscode/launch.json the expected way to provide which launchSettings profile to use?

When I tried (this was ~2mo back at this point) it just ignored everything and would always pick the first profile in launchSettings.json anyways. This was true of manually configured launch profiles or the dynamic configuration.

I also found applicationUrls of the selected profile is ignored; workaround was setting ASPNETCORE_URLS as an env variable.

Anyways about the documentation

• It should make clear in which file launchSettingsProfile should be configured
• It would be helpful if the "launchSettingsProfile": "ProfileNameGoesHere" example showed a few lines above/below.
• If launchSettingsProfile is a valid option for launch.json, it should appear in the launch profile schema/autocomplete suggestions (today it does not)
• If launchConfigurationId is internal, it should be removed from autocomplete suggestions and documented as such so users don't try to manually configure what the VSCode generates for them and have nothing happen as a result.

[patoJamriska]

@patoJamriska Do you have C# Dev Kit installed?

launchConfigurationId was not intended to really be saved in a launch.json but was supposed to be used by the dynamic configuration provider which is used internally by the resolver in C# Dev Kit.

The dotnet debug type only supports using projectPath if you are using launch.json

Yes, I am using the C# developer extension

[patoJamriska]

@WardenGnaw I had a similar issue to @patoJamriska because the documentation isn't very clear on this. Is launchSettingsProfile property on a launch configuration in .vscode/launch.json the expected way to provide which launchSettings profile to use?

When I tried (this was ~2mo back at this point) it just ignored everything and would always pick the first profile in launchSettings.json anyways. This was true of manually configured launch profiles or the dynamic configuration.

I also found applicationUrls of the selected profile is ignored; workaround was setting ASPNETCORE_URLS as an env variable.

Anyways about the documentation

• It should make clear in which file launchSettingsProfile should be configured
• It would be helpful if the "launchSettingsProfile": "ProfileNameGoesHere" example showed a few lines above/below.
• If launchSettingsProfile is a valid option for launch.json, it should appear in the launch profile schema/autocomplete suggestions (today it does not)
• If launchConfigurationId is internal, it should be removed from autocomplete suggestions and documented as such so users don't try to manually configure what the VSCode generates for them and have nothing happen as a result.

applicationUrls actually instead I use the launchUrl which is also in the properties/launchSettings. And I agree it is not clear that it is dependent on this file but it looks like the plugin is definetly trying to emulate how Visual studio works in that regards, but it is incomplete.

[patoJamriska]

I have still being doing research on this Because of other issues arising on the work I am doing, and run into this on the MS documentation. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/environments?view=aspnetcore-8.0#development-and-launchsettingsjson

This section actually shows how to use the coreclr to pass environment variables at the launch.json level, but obviosuly that is not an option since we are using the c# plugin and the launch is "type": "dotnet". Not sure if there has been anyone looking into this besides what has been shared by now?

PD: going thru the github LaunchSettings is using coreclr, and doing a bit more digging on the console, I can see that the dotnet type does launch coreclr in the brackground regardless, so I think until this can be properly investigated and I can see some reply about it, I will most likely switch to use coreclr again on the launch.json to have full control on vscode.
I removed PII from this on my logs so you can have the sample of the launch on the console:

{ "command": "launch", "arguments": { "name": "yourProjectNameDev", "type": "coreclr", "request": "launch", "projectPath": "/yourProjectPath.csproj", "launchConfigurationId": "TargetFramework=;MyApp_Dev", "__configurationTarget": 6, "preRestartTask": "dotnet: build /yourProjectPath.csproj", "program": "/yourProjectPath/bin/Debug/net8.0/yourProjectPath", "args": "", "cwd": "/yourProjectPath", "env": { "ASPNETCORE_URLS": "https://localhost:44324", "ASPNETCORE_HTTPS_PORT": "44324", "LOCAL_DEVELOPMENT": "true", "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development" }, "console": "internalConsole", "checkForDevCert": true, "launchSettingsProfile": null, "debugConsoleVerbosity": "verbose", "debuggerStartDebugTelemetry": { "buildCompletedTimestamp": "0x1922f6721ba", "totalBuildTime": 3353, "projectType": "Web" }, "serverReadyAction": { "action": "openExternally", "pattern": "\\bNow listening on:\\s+https?://\\S+", "uriFormat": "https://localhost:44324/clients" }, "hotReloadOnSave": true, "hotReloadVerbosity": "detailed", "stopAtEntry": false, "justMyCode": true, "requireExactSource": true, "enableStepFiltering": true, "logging": { "exceptions": true, "moduleLoad": true, "programOutput": true, "browserStdOut": true, "elapsedTiming": false, "threadExit": false, "processExit": true, "engineLogging": false, "diagnosticsLog": { "protocolMessages": false, "dispatcherMessages": "none", "debugEngineAPITracing": "none", "debugRuntimeEventTracing": false, "expressionEvaluationTracing": false, "startDebuggingTracing": false }, "consoleUsageMessage": true }, "suppressJITOptimizations": false, "symbolOptions": { "searchPaths": [], "searchMicrosoftSymbolServer": false, "searchNuGetOrgSymbolServer": false, "cachePath": "", "moduleFilter": { "mode": "loadAllButExcluded", "excludedModules": [], "includedModules": [], "includeSymbolsNextToModules": true, "includeSymbolsOnDemand": true } }, "expressionEvaluationOptions": { "allowImplicitFuncEval": true, "allowToString": true, "allowFastEvaluate": true, "showRawValues": false }, "internalConsoleOptions": "openOnSessionStart", "__sessionId": "90ecc55a-5069-42e8-a332-14ce69577c5f" }, "type": "request", "seq": 2 }