Python debugger: Stepping into a function that you have called interactively

Question

And I've answered my own question! It's the "debug" command in pydb:

~> cat -n /tmp/test_python.py
     1  #!/usr/local/bin/python
     2
     3  def foo():
     4      print "hi"
     5      print "bye"
     6
     7  exit(0)
     8

~> pydb /tmp/test_python.py
(/tmp/test_python.py:7):  <module>
7 exit(0)


(Pydb) debug foo()
ENTERING RECURSIVE DEBUGGER
------------------------Call level 11
(/tmp/test_python.py:3):  foo
3 def foo():

((Pydb)) s
(/tmp/test_python.py:4):  foo
4     print "hi"

((Pydb)) s
hi
(/tmp/test_python.py:5):  foo
5     print "bye"


((Pydb)) s
bye
------------------------Return from level 11 (<type 'NoneType'>)
----------------------Return from level 10 (<type 'NoneType'>)
LEAVING RECURSIVE DEBUGGER
(/tmp/test_python.py:7):  <module>

You can interactively debug a function with pdb as well, provided the script you want to debug does not exit() at the end:

$ cat test.py
#!/usr/bin/python

def foo(f, g):
        h = f+g
        print h
        return 2*f

To debug, start an interactive python session and import pdb:

$ python
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54869, Apr 18 2007, 22:08:04) 
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import pdb
>>> import test
>>> pdb.runcall(test.foo, 1, 2)
> /Users/simon/Desktop/test.py(4)foo()
-> h = f+g
(Pdb) n
> /Users/simon/Desktop/test.py(5)foo()
-> print h
(Pdb) 

The pdb module comes with python and is documented in the modules docs at http://docs.python.org/modindex.html

There is a python debugger that is part of the core distribution of python called 'pdb'. I rarely use it myself, but find it useful sometimes.

Given this program:

def foo():
    a = 0
    print "hi"

    a += 1

    print "bye"

foo()

Here is a session debugging it:

$ python /usr/lib/python2.5/pdb.py /var/tmp/pdbtest.py         ~
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(2)<module>()
-> def foo():
(Pdb) s
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(10)<module>()
-> foo()
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(2)foo()
-> def foo():
(Pdb) s
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(3)foo()
-> a = 0
(Pdb) s
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(4)foo()
-> print "hi"
(Pdb) print a
0
(Pdb) s
hi
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(6)foo()
-> a += 1
(Pdb) s
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(8)foo()
-> print "bye"
(Pdb) print a
1
(Pdb) s
bye
--Return--
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(8)foo()->None
-> print "bye"
(Pdb) s
--Return--
> /var/tmp/pdbtest.py(10)<module>()->None
-> foo()
(Pdb) s

For interactive work on code I'm developing, I usually find it more efficient to set a programmatic "break point" in the code itself with pdb.set_trace. This makes it easir to break on the program's state deep in a a loop, too: if <state>: pdb.set_trace()