how to inform debugger of already-built jar file to prevent the extension from doing a build

[gandalfas]

My Java project is built with a makefile, so I have a .jar file already built, located in a subdirectory of the workspace. How can I inform 'Debugger for Java' of that? When I click F5, it does an unnecessary build of the project into a jar file in my temp folder and uses that in the debug session, e.g.,

k: && cd "k:\Thoth\Thoth-Dev" && cmd /C ""C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_311\bin\java.exe" -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=n,suspend=y,address=localhost:62938 -cp C:\Users(Xxxx)\AppData\Local\Temp\cp_4ab30fqb4rwtkbuciuqs9wims.jar Thoth "

A debugger for another language in VS Code utilizes the property "program": "objdbg/EsperVocab.exe" in the launch.json file (and I know "program" is not universal), but I can find no parallel in DforJ.

I have searched much. I've tried "modulePaths" in launch.json, to no avail.

I saw a mention of Maven and other projects: "Open a Java project (Maven/Gradle/Eclipse/Single Java file)", which my project is not, as stated above.

Is there a way I can specify the jar file already built for my makefile type project, to be used for the debug session?

launch.json

{
// Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
// Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
// For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"type": "java",
"name": "Debug",
"request": "launch",
"mainClass": "Thoth"
}
]
}

WIndows 10
note: I am new at using VS Code with Java.

thanks!

[testforstephen]

If you don’t want to trigger a build when debugging, you can switch to the attach mode instead of the launch mode. You can find more details here: #120 (comment)

With the attach mode, you can use a custom tasks.json file to configure the preLaunch task. This task can run your custom build and launch commands. The debugger will then attach to the existing process for debugging.