pry-moves

pry-moves

An execution control add-on for Pry.

• Install: gem 'pry-moves'
• For non-rails (without auto-require), add to your script: require 'pry-moves'

Commands:

Documentation for latest version. For v0.1.12 see documentation here

• n - next line in current frame, including block lines (moving to next line goes as naturally expected)
  • nn - next line in current frame, skipping block lines
• s - step into function execution
  • s method_name - step into method method_name (For example from User.new.method_name). Partial name match supported.
  • s + - step into function, including hidden frames
• f - finish execution of current frame (block or method) and stop at next line on higher level
• c - continue
• b - go to next breakpoint (methods marked with pry_breakpoint = :some_scope variable)
• add-bp var_name [line_number] - add to script in this place conditional breakpoint: debug if var_name == <it's value>
• ir - iterate, go to next iteration of current block
• g 10 - goto line 10
• bt - show backtrace, excluding hidden frames
  • bt + bt hidden - show backtrace including hidden frames
  • bt a bt all - full backtrace with system and hidden frames
  • bt 10 - go to backtrace line 10
  • bt diff - diff of backtraces (bt save for persistent save of 1st backtrace)
  • bt > foo - write backtrace to file log/backtrace_foo.log
  • bt ::ClassName - list objects in backtrace which class name contains "ClassName"
• up/down/top/bottom (bm) - move over call stack
  • up + - move up, including vapid frames (block callers, hidden frames)
  • up pattern - move up till first frame which method name or file position in format folder/script.rb:12 matches regexp pattern
• % - print current frame of call stack (alias to whereami)
• $ - fully print current function without line numbers
• debug some_method(some_param) - call some_method(some_param) and interactively step into it. This way you can virtually "step back" by executing previous pieces of code from current method
• .method or 123 or :hash_key - Continue traversing of last object in history. E.g. orders will list array, then 3 will enter orders[3], then .price will enter orders[3].price
• watch variable - display variable's value on each step
• diff expression - display difference between saved expression (on first run) and expression 2
• profile [timeout] - profile time-consuming code and infinite loops/recursion
• off - Turn off debugging (don't stop on breakpoints)
• @ - restart and reload scripts (in app/ & spec/ by default), reload rake tasks. Configurable.
• # - exit with code 3, can be wrapped in bash script to fully reload ruby scripts
• ! - exit

Variable & methods names takes precedence over commands. So if you have variable named step, to execute command step type cmd step or command's alias, e.g. s

Custom commands:

PryMoves.custom_command "say" do |args, output|
  output.puts "Pry says: #{args}"
end

Examples

To use, invoke pry normally:

def some_method
  binding.pry          # Execution will stop here.
  puts 'Hello, World!' # Run 'step' or 'next' in the console to move here.
end

Advanced example

Demo class source here

Backtrace and call stack

You can explicitly hide frames from call stack by defining variables like this:

def insignificant_method
  hide_from_stack = true
  something_insignificant
  yield
end

• hide_from_stack - hide this function from stack
• pry_moves_stack_tip - stop on first frame above this function
• pry_moves_stack_end - limits stack from bottom, not possible to step below this frame

Configuration

Here is default configuration, you can reassign it:

PryMoves.reload_ruby_scripts = {
  monitor: %w(app spec),
  except: %w(app/assets app/views)
}
PryMoves.reload_rake_tasks = true
PryMoves::Backtrace::filter =
  /(\/gems\/|\/rubygems\/|\/bin\/|\/lib\/ruby\/|\/pry-moves\/)/

Turn off features with environment variables:

PRY_MOVES=off
PRY_MOVES_DEBUG_MISSING=off
PRY_MOVES_RELOADER=off

Debug:

TRACE_MOVES=on

Threads, helpers

To allow traveling to parent thread, use:

pre_callers = binding.callers
Thread.new do
  Thread.current[:pre_callers] = pre_callers
  #...
end

pry-moves can't stop other threads on binding.pry, so they will continue to run. This makes pry-moves not always suitable for debugging of multi-thread projects.

Though you can pause other threads with helper which will suspend execution on current line, until ongoing debug session will be finished with continue:

PryMoves.synchronize_threads

For example, you can put it into function which periodically reports status of thread (if you have such)

Other helpers:

• PryMoves.open? - if pry input dialog active. Can be used to suppress output from ongoing parallel threads

pry-remote

Rudimentary support for pry-remote (>= 0.1.1) is also included. Ensure pry-remote is loaded or required before pry-moves. For example, in a Gemfile:

gem 'pry'
gem 'pry-remote'
gem 'pry-moves'

Performance

Please note that debugging functionality is implemented through set_trace_func, which imposes heavy performance penalty while tracing (while running code within next/step/finish commands).

Development

Testing

bin/rspec
bin/rspec -f d # Output result of each spec example

DEBUG=true bin/rspec -e 'backtrace should backtrace'

ToDo

• iterate - steps in into child sub-block - should skip

Contributors

• Gopal Patel (@nixme)
• John Mair (@banister)
• Conrad Irwin (@ConradIrwin)
• Benjamin R. Haskell (@benizi)
• Jason R. Clark (@jasonrclark)
• Ivo Anjo (@ivoanjo)

Patches and bug reports are welcome. Just send a pull request or file an issue.

Acknowledgments

• Gopal Patel's pry-nav
• John Mair's pry-stack_explorer
• Ruby stdlib's debug.rb
• @Mon-Ouie's pry_debug