Debugging of FAKE 5 build scripts

We recommend Visual Studio Code with the Ionide extension for best FAKE tooling support, including proper debugging. The easiest way to debug a script is by using the "Debug" buttons in the FAKE targets outline

Non-Ionide or no Fake.Core.Targets

If you don't use Ionide or if you don't use Fake.Core.Targets the Outline stays empty and you (currently) cannot run or debug via UI. Please see the following sections on how to debug and run.

General considerations

• Run with more verbose logging -v
• If an error happens while restoring packages (before even running the script), consider using -vv or -v -v to increase the logging even more.

Visual Studio Code && portable.zip

Debugging works (on windows) in the following way:

• Download the portable fake distribution fake-dotnetcore-portable.zip and extract it somewhere (for example E:\fake-dotnetcore-portable)

• Open Visual Studio Code

• Open "The Debugger" view and add the following configuration

  
  {
    "name": "Debug My Build Script",
    "type": "coreclr",
    "request": "launch",
    "program": "E:\\fake-dotnetcore-portable\\fake.dll",
    "args": ["run", "--nocache", "--fsiargs", "--debug:portable --optimize-", "build.fsx"],
    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
    "stopAtEntry": false,
    "console": "internalConsole"
  }
  

  INFO

  It is important to specify --debug:portable --optimize-
  To get debugging support for .NET Core you need C# for Visual Studio Code

• Delete the .fake directory

• Set a breakpoint in your script and run the new configuration

Visual Studio Code && dotnet fake

Add the following lines to your build script:

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printfn "Press any key to continue..."
System.Console.ReadKey() |> ignore

• Delete .fake directory
• Start your build script via dotnet fake run --nocache build.fsx --fsiargs "--debug:portable --optimize-" and wait for the Press any key to continue... Message
• Select ".NET Core Attach" in the Visual Studio Code Debugger View
• Press play and select the dotnet exec --depsfile ".../fake..." process.

Run script without fake.exe (via fsi)

FAKE 5 scripts are not hardwired to the new FAKE 5 runner (even if they look like with the new header). To make them work with FSI all you need to do is to setup a "FAKE-Context":

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// Regular header and `#load ".fake/build.fsx/intellisense.fsx"`

#if !FAKE
let execContext = Fake.Core.Context.FakeExecutionContext.Create false "build.fsx" []
Fake.Core.Context.setExecutionContext (Fake.Core.Context.RuntimeContext.Fake execContext)
#endif

// Your Script code...

With these lines you can just run fsi build.fsx

You can use this "trick" to run the script via the regular IDE buttons.

To start a new context or cleanup the old one you can use (execute interactively):

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execContext.Dispose()
let execContext = Fake.Core.Context.FakeExecutionContext.Create false "build.fsx" []
Fake.Core.Context.setExecutionContext (Fake.Core.Context.RuntimeContext.Fake execContext)