If your launch script allows you to specify a python target (and finishes quickly enough), you can use pythonArgs in launch.json to insert a shim.

.vscode/launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Launch via Shell Script",
            "type": "python",
            "pythonArgs": ["debug_shim.py", "launch.sh"],
            "args": ["your", "app", "args"],
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "app.py"
        }
    ]
}

debug_shim.py

import os, subprocess, sys

launcher, debugger, debugger_args = sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2], sys.argv[3:]

sys.exit(subprocess.run(
    args=[launcher] + debugger_args,
    env=dict(os.environ, LAUNCH_TARGET=debugger),
    stdin=sys.stdin,
    stdout=sys.stdout,
    stderr=sys.stderr,
).returncode)

launch.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Or target could be passed along the command line as well.
# LAUNCH_TARGET="${1?}"

# ...stuff...

python "${LAUNCH_TARGET-app.py}" "${@}"

In my setup of v1.80.0 on WSL2, the debugger call is like so:

python python_args... debugger debugger_args... app app_args...

Then the call stack will be vscode -> shim -> launcher -> debugger -> app and the debugger will connect seamlessly, although if it takes more than several seconds VSCode will time out.

Specify the module you want to run with "module": "torch.distributed.launch"

You can ignore the -m flag. Put everything else under the args key.

Note: Make sure to include --nproc_per_node and the name of file (main_swav.py) in the list of arguments

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Python: Current File",
            "type": "debugpy",
            "module": "torch.distributed.launch",
            "request": "launch",
            "console": "integratedTerminal",
            "args": [
                "--nproc_per_node", "1", 
                "main_swav.py",
                "--data_path", "/dataset/imagenet/train",
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Read more here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/python/debugging#_module

Mind that providing arguments in launch.json works like described until you need key/value pair args.

For example, the command

$ python main.py --verbose --name Test

has to be coded inside the launch.json arguments line like this:

"args": ["--verbose", "--name=Test"],

Find a nearly hidden hint in the "Watson" example in Python debug configurations in Visual Studio Code.

Here's the structure and code you are looking for:

$ python -m json.tool test2.json
[
    "mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data2/opt/ODS",
    "mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data4/opt/ODS",
    "mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data5/opt/ODS"
]

Python:

$ cat parse.py 
import json
import sys
import subprocess
from pprint import pprint

jdata = open(sys.argv[1])

data = json.load(jdata)

print "start"
print(data)
for command in data:
  subprocess.call(command, shell=True)
print "end"
jdata.close()

Output:

$ python parse.py test2.json
start
[u'mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data2/opt/ODS', u'mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data4/opt/ODS', u'mkdir -p /home/ec2-user/data5/opt/ODS']
end

Actually, there is a very simple option to do this I found by accident while trying to edit the launch.json file.

"type": "python",
"request": "launch",
"pythonPath": "D:\\ProgramData\\Anaconda3\\envs\\simulec\\python.exe",
"module": "my_module.my_file",

Simply specify the module in the module key "module": "my_module.my_file"

The -m is not useful any more.