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Running and debugging

Run Runesmith from the repository with dotnet run, and give it a profile of its own so your everyday settings and sessions stay out of the way.

Run​

dotnet run --project src/Runesmith.App -- --diagnostics

Arguments after -- go to Runesmith: folders and files to open, and the options on Command line. --diagnostics writes the startup timings and the plugins to the Diagnostics channel of the Output panel.

A clean profile​

RUNESMITH_HOME moves the settings, key bindings, plugins, sessions, logs and caches into one folder. Point it at an empty folder for a clean start, and add --new-instance so a Runesmith you already run does not take over:

RUNESMITH_HOME=/tmp/runesmith-dev dotnet run --project src/Runesmith.App -- --new-instance ~/code/sample

On Windows, set the variable with $env:RUNESMITH_HOME = "C:\Temp\runesmith-dev" in PowerShell first.

Debug​

Open Runesmith.slnx in your IDE and debug Runesmith.App. In Debug builds, the app references AvaloniaUI.DiagnosticsSupport for Avalonia's developer tools.

Things worth knowing:

  • Errors on the UI thread do not end Runesmith: they are written to a file in the logs folder of the cache folder and shown in a notification. Set your debugger to break on thrown exceptions to stop where they happen.
  • Composition errors, such as an import nothing exports, are written to the standard error output when Runesmith starts.
  • Language servers run as child processes. Turn on Trace language servers (languageServers.trace) to see every message in the server's output channel.

Debug a plugin​

Build the plugin and install it into the profile's plugins folder, such as with the template's dotnet build -t:InstallPlugin and the same RUNESMITH_HOME, then start Runesmith from your IDE and set breakpoints in the plugin's code. The plugin's assembly loads from the plugins folder, so set breakpoints after it is installed and rebuild before each run. A local copy of an official plugin runs instead of the bundled one; see Work on an official plugin.