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M
Maxime_MARCHETTO
ST Employee
September 29, 2025

STM32Cube for Visual Studio Code – What’s new in September 2025

  • September 29, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 1533 views

This September update marks the second incremental update since the prerelease was published in May.

#1 STM32Cube for Visual Studio Code becomes STM32CubeIDE for Visual Studio Code

The STM32Cube for Visual Studio Code environment is still in its early stages. To ensure clarity and consistency between ST-developed IDEs within the STM32Cube ecosystem, we are renaming it STM32CubeIDE for Visual Studio Code.

#2 Semi-hosting for ST-LINK GDB server

The semi-hosting support can be enabled in three modes:

  • Console mode – allowing users to have I/O console interaction with the target

  • All mode – (console + file) allowing users to write data also from the target to a file on the host

The ST DAP adds a new set of attributes to enable and configure semi-hosting.

Image 2.png

This addition into the DAP comes with a minimal TCP/IP console allowing developers to interact with the target when using the Console mode:

Picture1.jpg

 

#3 Attach to remote debug server

Attach debug is a recent feature available in previous versions.

Image 3.png

The attach debug mode decouples the GDB-client launch from the GDB-server launch. The main use case is to allow developers using Visual Studio Code to connect remotely to another PC where the STM32 target is connected over the network. Consequently, developers must also specify the serverHost and the serverPort.

A secondary use case is to launch the GDB server in persistent mode on the same PC as Visual Studio Code, to speed up the debug launch sequence.

More details on how to launch the GDB-server are documented in the ST-LINK GDB server manual.

What’s next

The next development sprint is already planned.

Your feedback is essential in shaping the future of STM32Cube for Visual Studio Code as it allows us to tailor it precisely to your requirements. We look forward to reading your ideas and questions on our community forum!

 

Additional resource

First published on Sep 29, 2025

      This topic has been closed for replies.

      4 replies

      R
      RPdB
      Graduate
      November 27, 2025

      Hi @Maxime_MARCHETTO 

      Can you please provide more details or links to resources on how to get semi-hosting console working?

      I can build / debug successfully and see the TCP terminal and everything, I'm just unsure how to actually use this within a program, such as what is required to map to printf. Any help or direction would be appreciated.

      M
      mattias norlander
      ST Employee
      December 2, 2025

      Hi @RPdB ,

      On semihosting we don't have dedicated documentation yet for the VS Code based IDE, but you can have a look at this article for CubeIDE.

      To make this work you need to do 3 things: Link the required library as part of your build, adapt your code to initialize the semihosting and setup the debug environment. The very last aspect is the only part covered in this Dev News article.

      For the first two parts, please read this community article targeting STM32CubeIDE, and then apply some VS Code specific settings as proposed in my bullet-list below:

      • https://community.st.com/t5/stm32-mcus/how-to-use-semihosting-with-stm32cubeide-and-stm32/ta-p/49742
      • Chapter 2 covers the build part: Linking an initializing the semihosting related features from the standard library. 
      • Keep in mind that chapter 2.3 in the above link is in VS Code / CMake world not configured via GUI, instead you need to modify the CMake files slightly:
        • MyProject/CMakeListst.txt (Add the rdimon library):
          mattiasnorlander_0-1764683697711.png

           

        • MyProject/cmake/stm32cubemx/CMakeListst.txt (disable syscalls.c from being built):
          mattiasnorlander_1-1764683757134.png
        • MyProject/cmake/gcc-arm-none-eabi.cmake (pass the rdimon.specs file to the linker):
        • mattiasnorlander_2-1764683790854.png

      As mentioned above, the debug setup in launch.json is covered in this Dev News article. And the article I linked in the bullet liss above shows build settings and code.

      Hope that this helps! The VS Code documentation is improving step-by-step with each monthly release... Hopefully we will soon have a more complete tutorial on Semihosting for VS Code not forcing you to read 2-3 different documents.

        R
        RPdB
        Graduate
        December 3, 2025

        Excellent, thankyou for this! Appreciate all the work being done on VS Code integration.

          M
          mattias norlander
          ST Employee
          December 4, 2025

          Drop me a PM if you have any feedback on Semihosting you may want to share. :)

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