How can I debug Python code without running a script (using Eclipse)?

Question

I've noticed how easy it is to debug a Python script from Eclipse. Simply set breakpoints and run a Python script from the debug menu. But is it possible to start a Python Interactive Interpreter instead of running a particular Python script, whilst still having Eclipse breaking on breakpoints? This would make it so much easier to test functions.

Thanks for any help

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Still looking for a simple/ish way to start the debugger in Eclipse->PyDev that lets me use the interactive debugger. None of the answers as of yet is acceptable

Answer 1

You can explicitly write code to setup a breakpoint in your script, and then "remote debug". That means having pydevd in the pythonpath of your script wherever it is running, and running the eclipse pydev remote debugger on your devbox. If it's all happening on the same machine, this is fairly straightforward. If not, you'll need to specify the hostname of the dev machine running the python remote debugger in the call to settrace(). You'll also need pydevd available on the machine running the script.

I have got this working in the past without having to install eclipse+pydevd on the machine running the script. It's not totally straightforward, and if you go that route I'd recommend checking that the pydevd versions match or at least you know they're compatible. Otherwise you end up wasting time debugging the debugger.

For details see: Pydev Remote Debugger