the pre_debug_task stuck forever, or behaves unpredictably

[JXUCam]

sublime-text build 4200,
G++-13 v13.3.0,
Linux, the issue exists on both Ubuntu 24.04LTS and Linux Mint 22.2.

I tried several sublime-project files, including the sample cpp.sublime-project (of course I've made sure to change clang++ to g++ to suit my system).

Here is one setup that works at a time, but not at other times:

{
"folders": [
{
"path": ".",
},
],
"debugger_tasks": [
{
"name": "Compile",
"working_dir": "${project_path}",
"shell_cmd": "g++ -g ${file_name} -o ${file_base_name}_debug",
"file_regex": "(..[^:]):([0-9]+):([0-9]+)?:? error: (.)",
},
],
"debugger_configurations":
[
{
"type": "lldb",
"request": "launch",
"name": "Run",
"pre_debug_task": "Compile",
"program": "${project_path}/${file_base_name}_debug",
"stdio": ["input.txt","output.txt"],
"args": [],
"cwd": "${project_path}"
},
],
}

I have pin'd down the problem is that pre_debug_task may complete successfully, or may not - its behavior seem hard to predict. In the debugger_tasks section, I tried to change all possible keys and values, for example,changing $file_name$ to ${project_path}/${file_base_name}.cpp, or making use of ${folder} variable, changing key "shell_cmd" to be "cmd", changing "working_dir" to be "cwd", ......, I even tried to hard-code the full cmd (or shell_cmd), to be like "/usr/bin/g++ -g /home/myuserid/mypath/mycode.cpp -o mydebug" (of course I adapt these path and file names to my actual case), that is even I do NOT use any environment variable at all, the compile pre_debug_task still behaves like a tempy girl, sometimes it works and most other times it stuck for ever. When it works I tried to clean the binary and repeat then it may not work. I even tried to clean up all .config/sublime-text/ folder and start it all over. And I have thoroughly read through the sublime build document at here https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/build_systems.html, and quite some document of this github project, for example, https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Debugger and https://github.com/daveleroy/SublimeDebugger/tree/master/examples/cpp

I even searched through these open issues, but can't see this has been mentioned any way, nor a solution is provided.

I tried to launch sublime from command line, so as to see any error messages (also searched .xsession-errors), but none. This means there is no error, it may be that "Compile" job failed to trigger, or waiting for some input somewhere and stuck. As I explained above I even tried not to use any variable but hard-code all my files and g++ binary, still no luck.

Does anyone here have a clue?

Final word, when it works, I really like its ease of use to help me debugging my code. Thank you Daveleroy for making this sublime debugger. Hope you can understand my frustration when it refuses to compile.

[JXUCam]

It has no difference when I trigger the pre_debug_task by click my debug triangle or by directly run the compile task. I won't know when it would succeed and give me a tick, or spinning forever. I can also manually run the g++ command from my bash command line and produce the debug binary, with the same name and path in my debugger_configurations, still sometimes it just pick up my externally produced binary and start debugging, some other times it trigger the "Compile" task and stuck.

[JXUCam]

[JXUCam]

[JXUCam]

Above, the first screenshot was taken when it is working. And the 2nd is its sublime-project file. Then exactly setup won't work on another computer, and not working when I try to copy and adapt to another project.

[JXUCam]

I read an bug report somewhere, can't remember it exactly now. It was because the file
~/.config/sublime-text/Packages/Debugger/modules/dap/configuration.py got a fragile regrex. And it was fixed by a later commit. I confirm that on my computer that bug is no more.

Again, I must emphasize that I have tried not to use any environmental variable at all, changing everything to be hard-coded, the G++ compiler, the flags, the source file, the output file. The same combination work from build process of course, just not from the task. I am not sure if this is a ST bug or it is related to this debugger.