Installing, Starting, and Stopping the Remote Debug Server

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Go Up to Remote Debugging - Old-Style Procedures

This topic describes how to install, start, and stop the old-style remote debugger.

Note: Although the old-style remote debugging solution is still supported, we recommend that you use the new remote and multi-device debugging solution which enables you to:
  • Use the integrated debugger to debug both remote and multi-device applications.
  • Use the Deployment Manager to configure and deploy your applications.

Remote debugging lets you debug a RAD Studio application running on a remote computer. Once the remote debug server is running on the remote computer, you can use RAD Studio to connect to that computer and begin debugging.

Prerequisites and security considerations for remote debugging

  • The local and remote computers must be connected through TCP/IP.
  • All of the files required for debugging the application must be available on the remote computer before you begin debugging. This includes executables, DLLs, assemblies, data files, and TDS (debug) files.
  • In addition to the port that the remote debug server listens on, a connection is opened for each application that is being debugged. Additional port numbers are chosen dynamically by Windows; a firewall that only allows connections to the listening port will prevent the remote debugger from working.
Warning: The connection between RAD Studio and the remote debug server is a simple TCP/IP socket, with neither encryption nor authentication support. Therefore, the remote debug server should not be run on a computer that can be accessed over the network by untrusted clients.

To install and start the remote debug server

  1. If RAD Studio is installed on the remote computer, skip to step 3. In this case, the remote debug server (rmtdbg260.exe) is already available, by default, at C:\Program Files (x86)\Embarcadero\Studio\20.0\Bin.
  2. Follow the directions for Installing a Debugger on a Remote Machine.
  3. On the remote computer, run rmtdbg260.exe using the following syntax:
rmtdbg260.exe [-listen [hostname:]port]
where:
  • hostname is an optional host name or TCP/IP address for binding to a particular host, for example, somehost or 127.0.0.1. If you specify hostname, you must also specify :port.
  • port is an optional (required if hostname is specified) port number or standard protocol name, for example, 8000 or ftp. If omitted, 64447 is used as the port number.

Examples

rmtdbg160.exe -listen 8000
rmtdbg160.exe -listen somehost:8000
rmtdbg160.exe -listen 127.0.0.1:8000


After the remote debug server is started, its icon remote debugger icon appears in the Windows taskbar.

To shut down the remote debug server

  1. On the remote computer, in the Windows taskbar, right-click the remote debugger iconEmbarcadero Remote Debugger Listener icon.
  2. In the shortcut menu, choose Exit.

Shutting down the remote debug server does not affect active debugging sessions.

See Also