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# yabridge
[![Automated builds](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/workflows/Automated%20builds/badge.svg?branch=master&event=push)](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Automated+builds%22+branch%3Amaster)
Yet Another way to use Windows VST plugins on Linux. Yabridge seamlessly
supports running both 64-bit Windows VST2 plugins as well as 32-bit Windows VST2
plugins in a 64-bit Linux VST host, with optional support for inter-plugin
communication through [plugin groups](#plugin-groups). This project aims to be
as transparent as possible in order to achieve the best possible plugin
compatibility while also staying easy to debug and maintain.
![yabridge screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/master/screenshot.png)
### Table of contents
- [Tested with](#tested-with)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [Automatic setup](#automatic-setup)
- [Manual setup](#manual-setup)
- [Search path setup](#search-path-setup)
- [DAW setup](#daw-setup)
- [Bitbridge](#bitbridge)
- [Wine prefixes](#wine-prefixes)
- [Configuration](#configuration)
- [Plugin groups](#plugin-groups)
- [Compatibility options](#compatibility-options)
- [Example](#example)
- [Troubleshooting common issues](#troubleshooting-common-issues)
- [Performance tuning](#performance-tuning)
- [Runtime dependencies and known issues](#runtime-dependencies-and-known-issues)
- [Building](#building)
- [32-bit bitbridge](#32-bit-bitbridge)
- [Debugging](#debugging)
- [Attaching a debugger](#attaching-a-debugger)
## Tested with
Yabridge has been tested under the following VST hosts using Wine Staging 5.9:
- Bitwig Studio 3.2
- Carla 2.2
- Ardour 6.3
- Mixbus 6.0.702
- REAPER 6.15[\*](#runtime-dependencies-and-known-issues)
- Renoise 3.2.1[\*](#runtime-dependencies-and-known-issues)
Please let me know if there are any issues with other VST hosts.
## Usage
You can either download a prebuilt version of yabridge through GitHub's
[releases](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/releases) section, or you can
compile it from source using the instructions in the [build](#Building) section
below. Alternatively there are AUR packages available if you are running Arch or
Manjaro ([yabridge](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yabridge/),
[yabridge-bin](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yabridge-bin/),
[yabridge-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yabridge-git/)).
There are two ways to use yabridge, either by using copies or through symbolink
links. If your host supports plugin sanboxing, then using symlinks will be the
easier installation method. The main advantage here is that you will be able to
update yabridge for all of your plugins by just overwriting yabridge's files,
and it avoids having to either install yabridge outside of your home directory
or to modify environment variables to get yabridge to find the correct files.
Sadly, not all hosts support this behavior. The copy-based installation will
work for all hosts. If you decide to use the symlink-based installation method
with Bitwig Studio, then make sure the _Individually_ plugin hosting mode is
enabled.
### Automatic setup
The easiest way to get up and running is through
[yabridgectl](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/tree/master/tools/yabridgectl).
You can download yabridgectl from GitHub's
[releases](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/releases) section. There is
also an AUR package available if you are running Arch of Manjaro
([yabridgectl-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yabridgectl-git/), it's
also included in
[yabridge-bin](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yabridge-bin/)). More
comprehensive documentation can be found in yabridgectl's readme, or by running
`yabridgectl --help`.
First of all, yabridgectl needs to know where it can find yabridge's files. If
you have downloaded the prebuilt binaries, then you can simply extract the
archive to `~/.local/share` and yabridgectl will pick up the files in
`~/.local/share/yabridge` automatically[\*](#why-local-share-yabridge). You also
won't have to do any additional setup if you're using one of the AUR packages.
If you have compiled yabridge from source or if you installed the files to some
other location, then you can use `yabridgectl set --path=<path>` to tell
yabridgectl where it can find the files.
Secondly, yabridgectl will default to the copy-based installation method. If you
are using a VST host with individually sandboxed plugins such as Bitwig Studio
and you want to use the symlink-based installation method instead, then you can
enable that using `yabridgectl set --method=symlink`.
Next you'll want to tell yabridgectl where it can find your plugins. For this
you can use yabridgectl's `add`, `rm` and `list` commands. For instance, to add
the most common VST2 plugin directory, use `yabridgectl add "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins"`. You can also use
`yabridgectl status` to get an overview of the current settings and the
installation status of all of your plugins.
Finally you can run `yabridgectl sync` to finish setting up yabridge. Simply
tell your VST host to search for plugins in the directories you just added and
you'll be good to go. Don't forget to rerun `yabridgectl sync` whenever you
update yabridge if you are using the copy-based installation method.
<sup id="why-local-share-yabridge">
*Instead of copying yabridge's files to <code>~/.local/share</code>, it would
also be possible to install yabridge to <code>/usr/local/bin</code> and
<code>/usr/local/lib</code>. While this does avoid the need to modify your
<code>PATH</code> environment variable when using the copy-based installation
method, it could also cause other issues if you're not careful. This is why
it's recommended to install yabridge to your home directory if you're not
using one of the AUR packages.
</sup>
### Manual setup
To set up yabridge without using yabridgectl, first download and extract
yabridge's files like in the section above. The rest of this section assumes
that you have extracted the files to `~/.local/share` (such that
`~/.local/share/yabridge/libyabridge.so` exists), and that you want to set up
yabridge for the VST2 plugin called `~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins/plugin.dll`.
Depending on whether you want to use copy or symlink-based installation method,
you can then set up yabridge for that plugin by creating a copy or symlink of
`libyabridge.so` next to `plugin.dll` called `plugin.so`. For the example,
you can use either:
```shell
# For the copy-based installation method
cp ~/.local/share/yabridge/libyabridge.so "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins/plugin.so"
# For the symlink-based installation method
ln -sf ~/.local/share/yabridge/libyabridge.so "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins/plugin.so"
```
If you are using the copy-based installation method, then don't forget to
overwrite all copies of `libyabridge.so` you created this way whenever you
update yabridge.
### Search path setup
If you're using the _copy-based_ installation method and you're not using any of
the AUR packages, then you'll have to modify your _login shell_'s `PATH`
environment variable so that yabridge is able to find the files in the directory
you've extracted yabridge's files to. Yabridgectl will automatically check
whether this is set up correctly when you run `yabridgectl sync`, and it will
show a warning if it detects any issues. _If you do not see such a warning after
running `yabridgectl sync`, then you can skip this section._
To do this, you'll want to add yabridge's installation directory to your login
shell's `PATH` environment variable. If you're unsure what your login shell is,
then you can open a terminal and run `echo $SHELL` to find out. For the below
examples I'll assume you're using the default installation location at
`~/.local/share/yabridge`.
- If you are using the default **Bash** shell, then you will want to add the
following line to `~/.bash_profile` (or `~/.profile` if it does not exist):
```shell
export PATH="$HOME/.local/share/yabridge:$PATH"
```
- If you are using **Zsh**, then you can add the following line to `~/.zprofile`
(`~/.zshenv` should also work, but some distros such as Arch Linux overwrite
`PATH` after this file has been read):
```shell
export PATH="$HOME/.local/share/yabridge:$PATH"
```
- If you are using **fish**, then you can add the following line to either
`~/.config/fish/config.fish` or some file in `~/.config/fish/conf.d/`:
```shell
set -gp fish_user_paths ~/.local/share/yabridge
```
Rerun `yabridgectl sync` to make sure that the setup has been successful. If the
environment variable has been set up correctly, you should not be seeing any
warnings. Make sure to log out and log back in again to ensure that all
applications pick up the new changes.
### DAW setup
Finally, open your DAW's VST location configuration and tell it to look for
plugins under `~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins`. That way it
will automatically pick up any of your Windows VST2 plugins.
### Bitbridge
If you have downloaded the prebuilt version of yabridge or if have followed the
instructions from the [bitbridge](#32-bit-bitbridge) section below, then
yabridge is also able to load 32-bit VST plugins. The installation procedure for
32-bit plugins is exactly the same as for 64-bit plugins. Yabridge will
automatically detect whether a plugin is 32-bit or 64-bit on startup and it will
handle it accordingly.
### Wine prefixes
It is also possible to use yabridge with multiple Wine prefixes. Yabridge will
automatically detect and use the Wine prefix the plugin's `.dll` file is located
in. Alternatively you could set the `WINEPREFIX` environment variable to
override the Wine prefix for all instances of yabridge.
### Configuration
Yabridge can be configured on a per plugin basis to host multiple plugins within
a single process using [plugin groups](#plugin-groups), as well as to improve
compatibility with certain hosts and plugins through a variety of [compatibility
options](#compatibility-options)
Configuring yabridge for specific plugins is done through a `yabridge.toml` file
located in either the same directory as the plugin's `.so` file you're trying to
configure, or in any of its parent directories. This file contains case
sensitive [glob](https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/glob.7.html) patterns
that match paths to yabridge `.so` files relative to the `yabridge.toml` file.
These patterns can also match an entire directory to apply settings to all
plugins within that directory. To avoid confusion, only the first
`yabridge.toml` file found and only the first matching glob pattern within that
file will be considered. See below for an [example](#example) of a
`yabridge.toml` file.
#### Plugin groups
| Option | Values | Description |
| ------- | ----------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `group` | `{"<string>",""}` | Defaults to `""`, meaning that the plugin will be hosted individually. |
Some plugins have the ability to communicate with other instances of that same
plugin or even with other plugins made by the same manufacturer. This is often
used in mixing plugins to allow different tracks to reference each other without
having to route audio between them. Examples of plugins that do this are
FabFilter Pro-Q 3, MMultiAnalyzer and the iZotope mixing plugins. In order for
this to work, all instances of a particular plugin will have to be hosted in the
same process.
Yabridge has the concept of _plugin groups_, which are user defined groups of
plugins that will all be hosted inside of a single process. Plugins groups can
be configured for a plugin by setting the `group` option of that plugin to some
name. All plugins with the same group name will be hosted within a single
process. Of course, plugin groups with the same name but in different Wine
prefixes and with different architectures will be run independently of each
other. See below for an [example](#example) of how these groups can be set up.
#### Compatibility options
| Option | Values | Description |
| ---------------------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `editor_double_embed` | `{true,false}` | Compatibility option for plugins that rely on the absolute screen coordinates of the window they're embedded in. Since the Wine window gets embedded inside of a window provided by your DAW, these coordinates won't match up and the plugin would end up drawing in the wrong location without this option. Currently the only known plugins that require this option are _PSPaudioware_ plugins with expandable GUIs, such as E27. Defaults to `false`. |
| `hack_reaper_update_display` | `{true,false}` | Compatibility option for _REAPER_ and _Renoise_. This disables the `audioMasterUpdateDisplay()` function, which in these hosts will introduce mutual recursion which is currently not supported by yabridge's communication model. Defaults to `false`. |
These options are workarounds for issues mentioned in the [known
issues](#runtime-dependencies-and-known-issues) section. Depending on the hosts
and plugins you use you might want to enable some of them. When using REAPER,
it's recommended to enable `hack_reaper_update_display` for all of your plugins.
To do this, create a `yabridge.toml` file next to your plugin's .so files with
the following contents:
```toml
["*"]
hack_reaper_update_display = true
```
#### Example
All of the paths used here are relative to the `yabridge.toml` file.
```toml
# ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins/yabridge.toml
["FabFilter Pro-Q 3.so"]
group = "fabfilter"
["MeldaProduction/Tools/MMultiAnalyzer.so"]
group = "melda"
# Matches an entire directory and all files inside it, make sure to not include
# a trailing slash
["ToneBoosters"]
hack_reaper_update_display = true
group = "toneboosters"
["PSPaudioware"]
editor_double_embed = true
# Simple glob patterns can be used to avoid unneeded repetition
["iZotope*/Neutron *"]
group = "izotope"
# Since this file has already been matched by the above glob pattern, this won't
# do anything
["iZotope7/Neutron 2 Mix Tap.so"]
group = "This will be ignored!"
# Of course, you can also add multiple plugins to the same group by hand
["iZotope7/Insight 2.so"]
group = "izotope"
# This will apply a workaround for an implementation issue in REAPER and Renoise
# to all plugins in the current directory _that are not already matched by one
# of the above patterns_. You will have to add this option to any other entries
# if you are for instance using plugin groups. See the ToneBoosters entry above
# for an example.
["*"]
hack_reaper_update_display = true
```
## Troubleshooting common issues
- If you're using the copy-based installation method and plugins are getting
skipped or blacklisted immediately when your VST host is scanning them, then
this is likely caused by `yabridge-host.exe` not being found in your search
path. See the [search path setup](#search-path-setup) section for instructions
on how to fix this.
- If you're using the symlink installation method and you're seeing multiple
duplicate instances of the same plugin, or after opening a single plugin every
subsequent plugin opens as another instance of that first plugin, then your
VST host is not sandboxing individual plugins. If you're using Bitwig Studio,
the make sure the '_Individual_' plugin hosting mode is enabled and all of the
checkboxes in the list of sandboxing exceptions are left unchecked.
- If you're using a symlink and the plugin is not getting picked up at all, then
you can verify that the symlink is correct by running:
```shell
readelf -s ~/.wine/drive_c/path/to/plugin.so | grep yabridge
```
The output should contain several lines related to yabridge.
- If you're seeing errors related to Wine, then it can be that your installed
version of Wine is much older than the version that yabridge has been compiled
for. Yabridgectl will automatically check for this when you run `yabridgectl sync`
after updating Wine or yabridge. You can also manually verify that Wine is working
correctly by running one of the VST host applications. Assuming that yabridge
is installed under `~/.local/share/yabridge`, then running
`~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridge-host.exe` directly (so _not_
`wine ~/.local/share/yabridge/yabridge-host.exe`, that won't work) in a
terminal should print a few messages related to Wine's startup process
followed by the following line:
```
Usage: yabridge-host.exe <vst_plugin_dll> <unix_domain_socket>
```
If you're seeing a `002b:err:module:__wine_process_init` error instead, then
your version of Wine is too old for this version of yabridge and you'll have
to upgrade your Wine version. Instructions for how to do this on Ubuntu can be
found on the [WineHQ website](https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu).
- Sometimes left over Wine processes can cause problems. Run `wineserver -k` to
terminate Wine related in the current or default Wine prefix.
- Time out errors during plugin scanning are caused by the Wine process not
being able to start. There should be plugin output messages in your DAW or
terminal that with more information on what went wrong.
- If you're using a _lot_ of plugins and you're unable to load any new plugins,
then you may be running into Xorg's client limit. The exact number of plugins
it takes for this to happen will depend on your system and the other
applications running in the background. An easy way to check if this is the
case would be to try and run `wine cmd.exe` from a terminal. If this prints a
message about the maximum number of clients being reached (or if you are not
able to open the terminal at all), then you might want to consider using
[plugin groups](#plugin-groups) to run all instances of your most frequently
used plugins within a single process.
## Performance tuning
Running Windows VST plugins under Wine should have minimal performance impact,
but you may still notice an increase in audio spikes and overall processing
latency. Luckily there are a few things you can do to get rid of most or all of
these negative side effects:
- First of all, you'll want to make sure that you can run programs with realtime
priorities. Note that on Arch and Manjaro this does not necessarily require a
realtime kernel as they include the `PREMPT` patch set in their regular
kernels. You can verify that this is workign correctly by running
`chrt -f 10 whoami`, which should print your username.
- The other even more important thing you can do is to use a build of Wine with
Proton's fsync patches. This can improve performance significantly, especially
when using a lot of plugins at the same time. If you're running Arch or
Manjaro, then you can use the
[wine-nspa](https://github.com/nine7nine/pkgbuilds_nspa/tree/master/wine-nspa)
PKGBUILD for an audio production optimized version of Wine Staging 5.9, or
[wine-tkg](https://github.com/Frogging-Family/wine-tkg-git) for a more up to
date version with a different patch set. Aside from a patched copy of Wine
you'll also need a supported kernel for this to work. Manjaro's kernel
supports fsync out of the box, and on Arch you can use the `linux-zen` kernel.
Finally you'll have to set the `WINEFSYNC` environment variable to `1` to
enable fsync. See the [search path setup](#search-path-setup) section for more
information on where to do this. You can use the following command to check if
this is set correctly:
```shell
env -i HOME="$HOME" $SHELL -l -c 'echo $WINEFSYNC'
```
If this prints `1` then everything is set up correctly. Running `wineboot`
from a terminal should now also print `fsync: up and running.`. You'll have to
log out and back in again for this to take effect on applications launched
from the GUI.
If anyone knows a good way to install an fsync patched version of Wine on
other distros, then please let me know!
## Runtime dependencies and known issues
Any VST2 plugin should function out of the box, although some plugins will need
some additional dependencies for their GUIs to work correctly. Notable examples
include:
- **REAPER** and **Renoise** can both freeze when using plugins that call the
`audioMasterUpdateDisplay()` function because of mutual recursion limitations.
Until this is fixed you can set an [option](#compatibility-options) through
`yabridge.toml` to work around this.
- **Native Instruments** plugins work, but Native Access is unable to finish
installing the plugins. To work around this you can open the .iso file
downloaded to your downloads directory and run the installer directly. When
activating the plugins you may have to cancel the self-updating in NI Service
Center.
- **Serum** requires you to disable `d2d1.dll` in `winecfg` and to install
`gdiplus` through `winetricks`.
- **MeldaProduction** plugins have minor rendering issues when GPU acceleration
is enabled. This can be fixed by disabling GPU acceleration in the plugin
settings. I'm not sure whether this is an issue with Wine or the plugins
themselves. Notable issues here are missing redraws and incorrect positioning
when the window gets dragged offscreen on the top and left dies of the screen.
- **PSPaudioware** plugins with expandable GUIs, such as E27, may have their GUI
appear in the wrong location after the GUI has been expanded. You can enable
an alternative [editor hosting mode](#compatibility-options) to fix this.
- Plugins like **FabFilter Pro-Q 3** that can share data between different
instances of the same plugin plugins have to be hosted within a single process
for that functionality to work. See the [plugin groups](#plugin-groups)
section for instructions on how to set this up.
- **Drag-and-drop** from applications running under Wine to X11 does not yet
work, so you won't be able to drag samples and MIDI files from a plugin to the
host. At least, not directly. Because Windows applications have to create
actual files on the disk for drag-and-drop to work, you can keep a file
explorer open and manually drag the generated files into your DAW as a
workaround. To find out where in `~/.wine` the plugin is creating its files,
you can use the following command to monitor the Wine prefix for any newly
created files:
```shell
inotifywait -mre CLOSE_WRITE --format '%w%f' ~/.wine/drive_c
```
Aside from that, these are some known caveats:
- Plugins by **KiloHearts** have file descriptor leaks when esync is enabled,
causing Wine and yabridge to eventually stop working after the system hits the
open file limit. This sadly cannot be fixed in yabridge. Simply unset
`WINEESYNC` while using yabridge or switch to using fsync if this is an issue.
- Most recent **iZotope** plugins don't have a functional GUI in a typical out
of the box Wine setup because of missing dependencies. Please let me know if
you know which dependencies are needed for these plugins to render correctly.
- MIDI key labels (for use with drum machines and multisamplers) will not be
updated once the plugin has finished loading since there's no way to tell that
they have been updated by the plugin. Right now simply deactivating and
reactivating the plugin will cause these labels to be updated.
- Under Bitwig Studio, opening the editor for a plugin that perform IO while
loading its editor may cause playback to pause briefly during that time.
Examples of plugins that do this include recent versions of Kontakt and the
Spitfire plugins. This happens because Bitwig expects the plugins to be able
to instantly report their editor size before actually opening the editor, but
instead of doing so these plugins will instead perform a bunch of IO first and
Bitwig will wait patiently for them to finish. It would be possible to modify
yabridge to work around this limitation of Bitwig, but I'm very hesitant to
add hacks to yabridge unless absolutely necessary.
There are also some VST2.X extension features that have not been implemented yet
because I haven't needed them myself. Let me know if you need any of these
features for a certain plugin or VST host:
- SysEx messages. In addition to MIDI, VST 2.4 also supports SysEx. I don't know
of any hosts or plugins that use this, but please let me know if this is
needed for something.
- Vendor specific extension (for instance, for
[REAPER](https://www.reaper.fm/sdk/vst/vst_ext.php), though most of these
extension functions will work out of the box without any modifications).
## Building
To compile yabridge, you'll need [Meson](https://mesonbuild.com/index.html) and
the following dependencies:
- GCC 10+[\*](#building-ubuntu-18.04)
- A Wine installation with `winegcc` and the development headers. The latest
commits contain a workaround for a winelib [compilation
issue](https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49138) with Wine 5.7+.
- Boost version 1.66 or higher[\*](#building-ubuntu-18.04)
- libxcb
The following dependencies are included in the repository as a Meson wrap:
- bitsery
- function2
- tomlplusplus
The project can then be compiled as follows:
```shell
meson setup --buildtype=release --cross-file cross-wine.conf build
ninja -C build
```
After you've finished building you can follow the instructions under the
[usage](#usage) section on how to set up yabridge.
<sup id="building-ubuntu-18.04">
*The versions of GCC and Boost that ship with Ubuntu 18.04 by default are too
old to compile yabridge. If you do wish to build yabridge from scratch rather
than using the <a
href="https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge/actions?query=workflow%3A%22Automated+builds%22+branch%3Amaster">prebuilt
binaries</a>, then you should take a look at the <a
href="https://github.com/robbert-vdh/docker-yabridge/blob/master/bionic/Dockerfile">docker
image</a> used when building yabridge on Ubuntu 18.04 for on overview of what
would need to be installed to compile on Ubuntu 18.04.
</sup>
### 32-bit bitbridge
It is also possible to compile a host application for yabridge that's compatible
with 32-bit plugins such as old SynthEdit plugins. This will allow yabridge to
act as a bitbirdge, allowing you to run old 32-bit only Windows VST2 plugins in
a modern 64-bit Linux VST host. For this you'll need to have installed the 32
bit versions of the Boost and XCB libraries. This can then be set up as follows:
```shell
# Enable the bitbridge on an existing build
meson configure build -Dwith-bitbridge=true
# Or configure a new build from scratch
meson setup --buildtype=release --cross-file cross-wine.conf -Dwith-bitbridge=true build
ninja -C build
```
This will produce four files called `yabridge-host-32.exe`,
`yabridge-host-32.exe.so`, `yabridge-group-32.exe` and
`yabridge-group-32.exe.so`. Yabridge will detect whether the plugin you're
trying to load is 32-bit or 64-bit, and will run either the regular version or
the `*-32.exe` variant accordingly.
## Debugging
Wine's error messages and warning are usually very helpful whenever a plugin
doesn't work right away. However, with some VST hosts there is no way to inspect
a plugin's output. Bitwig, for instance, hides a plugin's STDOUT and STDERR
streams after the plugin scanning process. To make it easier to debug
malfunctioning plugins, yabridge offers these two environment variables to
control yabridge's logging facilities:
- `YABRIDGE_DEBUG_FILE=<path>` allows you to write yabridge's debug messages as
well as all output produced by the plugin and by Wine itself to a file. For
instance, you could launch your DAW with
`env YABRIDGE_DEBUG_FILE=/tmp/yabridge.log <daw>`, and then use
`tail -F /tmp/yabridge.log` to keep track of the output. If this option is not
present then yabridge will write all of its debug output to STDERR instead.
- `YABRIDGE_DEBUG_LEVEL={0,1,2}` allows you to set the verbosity of the debug
information. Each level increases the amount of debug information printed:
- A value of `0` (the default) means that yabridge will only log the output
from the Wine process the Wine process and some basic information about the
environment, the configuration and the plugin being loaded.
- A value of `1` will log detailed information about most events and function
calls sent between the VST host and the plugin. This filters out some noisy
events such as `effEditIdle()` and `audioMasterGetTime()` since those are
sent multiple times per second by for every plugin.
- A value of `2` will cause all of the events to be logged without any
filtering. This is very verbose but it can be crucial for debugging
plugin-specific problems.
More detailed information about these debug levels can be found in
`src/common/logging.h`.
Wine's own [logging facilities](https://wiki.winehq.org/Debug_Channels) can also
be very helpful when diagnosing problems. In particular the `+message` and
`+relay` channels are very useful to trace the execution path within loaded VST
plugin itself.
### Attaching a debugger
When needed, I found the easiest way to debug the plugin to be to load it in an
instance of Carla with gdb attached:
```shell
env YABRIDGE_DEBUG_FILE=/tmp/yabridge.log YABRIDGE_DEBUG_LEVEL=2 carla --gdb
```
Doing the same thing for the Wine VST host can be a bit tricky. You'll need to
launch winedbg in a seperate detached terminal emulator so it doesn't terminate
together with the plugin, and winedbg can be a bit picky about the arguments it
accepts. I've already set this up behind a feature flag for use in KDE Plasma.
Other desktop environments and window managers will require some slight
modifications in `src/plugin/plugin-bridge.cpp`. To enable this, simply run:
```shell
meson configure build --buildtype=debug -Dwith-winedbg=true
```
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