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There is documentation on how to connect to an external running vm via JPDA, but there isn't any information on howto setup said external running vm. Ex: If you are running IPlanet or Jrun and you want to enable attach to process debugging with Netbeans, set the external VM up to run with the following options, (assuming jdk 1.3) -Xdebug -Xnoagent - runjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=8887,server=y,suspend=n. You should now be able to connect to you process on port 8887 from inside NetBeans. Please see the JPDA <a href="http://java.sun.com/products/jpda/">documentation</a> for more information on how to configure your external jvm for attach to process debugging.
Moving to the usersguide module which is responsible for the IDE help.
Target milestone -> 3.3.1.
The information you requested is now documented under Debugging Java Programs -> Starting a Debugging Session -> Attaching the Debugger to a Running Process. The new help page is included in the Netbeans 3.3 build.