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Debug2

Assumption Debug2 Panels expect to be working against saved Perl files thanks tome++

• tool-tips used extensively throughout so read them.
• Assumption you are aware of this: ​http://perldoc.perl.org/perldebug.html
• see Pro Perl Debugging ​http://www.apress.com/9781590594544 It's a nice text,
  • try working your way through Ch-04 in Padre for example

critiques welcome

NB Please read this wiki page and view Tickets before opening a new Ticket

Debug::Client

Please note version compatibility, it's important, you can check what version is installed in Padre by looking in Help -> About -> Information

Debug-Client 0.21_07	Padre 0.97
Debug::Client 0.20	Padre 0.96
Debug::Client 0.16	Padre 0.94

NB Bold shows current release of Padre ( Green Current )

Tips

Warning if your script requires user input you should have "use external window for execution" checked

• also for start up parameters look at Tools -> Preferences -> language-Perl5: Perl-Arguments

• Turn on $OUTPUT_AUTOFLUSH
• Try setting a breakpoint against 1; at end of your .pl files or equivalent, if you want to poke about with "p|x" before return or end
• Be patient;
  • let Padre finish background tasks before launching debug
  • let each action complete, before launching next
  • remember it's using socket communications, hence ip time out :(
  • $DB::single = 1; may be of use, go read :)
• If you use Raw it's all up to you, but the feedback will be interesting :)

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Menu

• The first three items relate to the Panels below.
• Launch (L), Breakpoints (b) and Quit (q) as per tool-bar
• Visit Debug Wiki, is here.

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Tool-Bar

• we only need 3 buttons on the tool bar, ( 3 on right )
  • launch debugger ( launches Breakpoints & Debugger, enables tool-bar quit and then runs debug against current file )
  • breakpoint toggle adds blue dotdotdot margin marker. (works with or without Breakpoints panel visible, so you can add BP's as you go)
  • quit debugger ( initially greyed out )

NB. If you do not see the new icons, you will need to do the following, Tools->Preferences->Advanced->main_tool-bar_items Reset, for the three new tool-bar icons to appear

PS. icons will be greyed-out if Current file is not a Perl(mime-type) file.

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Breakpoints

• New in 0.97 when you click on a breakpoint point as in path/line, it now switches editor focus to file and line
  • if you do this whilst debugging, use the dot button in Debugger panel to show next line to debug.

Top icons

• gray cross ( Delete MARKER_NOT_BREAKABLE Current File Only )
• refresh Ctrl-List
• Breakpoints ( Toggle ) also updates Ctrl-List and Margin Markers ( the blue dotdotdot co exist with diff markers )

Middle

• Current File (BLUE)
• MARKER_NOT_BREAKABLE (GRAY) ( dotdotdot margin markers are also gray )
• Project files (GREEN)

Bottom

• check Project show all files in current project with breakpoints
  • if check projects, show delete all breakpoints in this project enabled.
• delete all breakpoints for when you need to delete all breakpoints in current project (project as in perl project)

NB

• Breakpoints are stored as absolute paths (debug will open files based on absolutes paths)
• Margin Marker Breakpoints piggy back on feature Syntax.

DebugBreakpoints

If you want to Peek inside the DB use Cookbook Recipe 04

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Debugger

When you "run debug" :)

• quit(q) is always visible, ( toolbar quit should now be enabled )
• the debugger will load breakpoints against the current file and it's project files, when it is load by the perl debug program, if you get it wrong, just adjust breakpoints as you go with b|B or quit and adjust breakpoints with panel and then re-run.

• new icons will only be visible when debug is running
  • step-in(s), step-out(n), step-over(r), run-till(c), glasses(p)
    • glasses, as per previous version, shown in black text ( if you select $_ remember DWISNWIM ) this is a persistent p :)

• when perl debug is running the Debugger Output panel will be opened, initially with the perl debug help screen.
• note the green SMALLRECT in margin, showing debug position, as previously
  • Tip if you want to delay closing of debugger output, breakpoint the 1; at end of your file :)

• As of Padre 0.95 you can now click on Variables and show values in Debugger Output in there corresponding colour

Why blue, I here you ask?, well others use yellow and red, but we have a wonderful blue Morpho butterfly :) hence blue

Show

• Show Local Variables(BLUE) is fixed to (y 0) local, as I don't know how to work out what level the debugger is at and how many levels there are, silly me
  • see Bugs & Limitations below.
• Show Global Variables(GRAY) is doing X !(INC|ENV|SIG) against a current file which is also part of a perl project.
  • I have been getting perl debug errors, see POD below, so you might notice it is automaticly disabled when I think it is unsafe, then re-enable.
  • If you want to see @ISA|@INC|%ENV|%SIG use the p|x button.

NB New in 0.97 when you click on either of above, display is now updated accordingly.

Debugger-Output Options

My premises is that we are just wrapping the command line debugger, in a nice way, hence we will use the existing perl debug command language thus subliminally teaching the perl debug CLI instructions.

These options all display in the Debug-Output panel. some my consider these advanced, they do get more intense as you go down and to the right :)

Code Listing

• trace is a toggle against next action
• . => (dot) return editor to the next line to be executed
• v => view around line
• L => List (default all) actions, breakpoints and watch expressions

Default action only

• b|B => running Breakpoints, sets or unsets breakpoint (current line) against running debug as well as the normal Breakpoint actions above.
  • it finishes with a 'L b' if you want to see more use '.vL' to see for your self,
• M => display loaded modules
• T => stack back-trace
• E => display thread id's (this seams a bit experimental at the moment, but here for completeness)
• o => Display all options

With value

• p|x => evaluate expression
  • output shows 'expression = result'
    • tip turn Trace off
  • works with $ @ % also 2 + 3
  • if empty returns $_ if exists or error :)
• S => RegEx
  • RegEx = !(IO::Socket|Carp) will hide Modules used by Debug::Client
• w|W => watches
  • add a watch (w exp)
  • delete an existing watch (W exp)
  • * delete all watches (W *)
  • blank display watches (L w)
• Raw => pass expression directly to debug prompt (with out passing GO!) the side effects are not fully tested, we await your critiques
  • any thing you like:
    • x Object->new
    • m Object
    • if you use "o frame=nn" (nn<=30) this will cause y-0 to display garbage, you have been warned, so reset to "o frame=0" asap
    • actions
    • H if you want to see session History
    • ... Oops yada-yada :)
    • help last but not least, you can now enter 'h' or 'h h' and even 'h alpha' try the others first, it just makes sense to use h via Raw.

Musings

• -,l ignored as we are in an IDE

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Debugger Output

The output window is only shown when debug is running

• See below ( only displays current output )
• red text, I wonder what the inspiration was for this!
• Suggest you uncheck ( Padre -> View -> Unlock User Interface ) so you can enlarge view. the square is a toggle.

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Screen Shot

Debug2

There is a lot going on in these slides, please notice the Debug-Output panel. In all cases the debugger has stopped after c continue(run-till).

slide 1

• The use of p|x = %HoH

slide 2

• The use of w|W = $_

• NB look at the wasted screen real-estate in the bottom right hand corner, I suggest that we should extend the right hand panel down into this space?

• The example files used here are in attachments if you want to play.

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Bugs & Limitations

• Using Show Variables my cause the following, found Watch not to be displayed in Debug-Output, even though Debug2 has stopped at the correct place.

  "Watchpoint 0:  @fonts changed:
      old value:  ''
      new value:  'ARRAY(0x9060508)', 'ARRAY(0x9060498)'
  main::CODE(0x95ba6d8)(/home/kevin/src/Padre/Padre-Plugin-Debug/scripts/test_1415.pl:63):
  63:         say @fonts;
  

• Using a Watch inside an ANON sub with Show Variables enabled may cause Padre to hang when clicking on Values in CtrlList, suggest you delete watch first.
  • Suggest you don't enable Show Variables against an embedded watch in an ANON sub.
• Also see open tickets below.

NB fixed in trunk 0.97 with D-C 0.21_07 (see code snipet in #1415)

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Tickets

Debugger for Perl 5

Ticket	Resolution	Status	Type	Priority	Summary	Owner	Reporter	Modified
#1485	fixed	closed	defect	major	debugger RAW command does not update state properly	bowtie	SvenDowideit	3 months
#1480	fixed	closed	defect	major	debugger hangs	bowtie	vsespb	4 months
#1471		reopened	defect	major	Can I see a call stack?	SvenDowideit	SvenDowideit	3 months
#1470		new	defect	major	The debugger fails to find the file being stepped into	SvenDowideit	SvenDowideit	4 months
#1464		new	enhancement	major	Add a Debug Launch dialogue	SvenDowideit	SvenDowideit	4 months
#1442		new	enhancement	major	Perl-Arguments : startup options per file		pandelis	10 months
#1420	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Start Padre with Debugger Panel active ...	bowtie	dolman	14 months
#1417		assigned	defect	minor	Debugger hangs with 'Show Local Variables' and very deep data-structures	bowtie	whumann	9 months
#1416	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Debug::Client::set_breakpoint ignores some errors	bowtie	whumann	14 months
#1415	fixed	closed	defect	trivial	Debugger stepping into anonymous subs may crash Padre	bowtie	whumann	14 months
#1412	fixed	closed	enhancement	trivial	Evaluate Expression in the debugger	bowtie	szabgab	14 months
#1411		assigned	enhancement	trivial	Remove value from display	bowtie	szabgab	9 months
#1410	fixed	closed	enhancement	minor	Display Value should show value immediately	bowtie	szabgab	14 months
#1408	not relevant	closed	enhancement	minor	How to examine/inspect Unicode strings?		szabgab	14 months
#1403	not relevant	closed	enhancement	minor	Debugger key bindings (n,s) do not function	bowtie	brewer	15 months
#1401	duplicate	closed	defect	critical	crash: Can't call method "get_h_var" on an undefined value at …/Padre/Wx/Panel/Debugger.pm line 904.		daxim	15 months
#1389	fixed	closed	defect	trivial	Breakpoints visual indicators aren't restored on Padre restart	bowtie	tome	15 months
#1388	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Using breakpoints toolbar item on un-named file causes crash	bowtie	tome	15 months
#1387	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Bad Query/Potential SQL injection in Padre/Breakpoints.pm	bowtie	tome	16 months
#1357	fixed	closed	defect	trivial	"Debugger" menu is shown for non-Perl files	alias, adamk	zenogantner	18 months
#1211	not relevant	closed	defect	major	Hot keys for Debug do not work		fellipecm	16 months
#1086	fixed	closed	enhancement	major	Debugger -> Display Value should support any Perl expression		dandv	18 months
#1085	fixed	closed	defect	major	"Debug -> Evaluate expression" doesn't display its output		dandv	18 months
#1084		reopened	enhancement	minor	Tooltip expression evaluation	bowtie	dandv	9 months
#1083	fixed	closed	enhancement	minor	It should be possible to set breakpoints before starting the debugger	szabgab	dandv	18 months
#1036	not a bug	closed	defect	critical	Debugged scripts can't find modules in the current directory		dandv	18 months
#1035	not a bug	closed	defect	critical	Padre hangs while debugged script hangs	szabgab	dandv	18 months
#1034	fixed	closed	defect	major	New tab opened when debugging script with errors	szabgab	dandv	18 months
#1005	not relevant	closed	defect	minor	Uninitialized values when starting debugger on a file with errors		zenogantner	18 months
#931	not relevant	closed	defect	major	debugger: show watch values immediately after adding		dam	18 months
#930	not relevant	closed	enhancement	minor	debugger: watch non-scalar variables		dam	18 months
#929	not relevant	closed	enhancement	minor	debugger: add watch under cursor		dam	18 months
#928	not relevant	closed	enhancement	minor	debugger: ability to remove watch items		dam	18 months
#882	not relevant	closed	defect	major	debugging for Wx-scripts doesn't work	bowtie	mtbf40	15 months
#833	fixed	closed	defect	major	Syntax error crash padre when trying to debug	szabgab	vrobin	18 months
#812	not relevant	closed	defect	major	Win32::GUI programs require 'external window' option	azawawi	Floyd-ATC	18 months
#333	fixed	closed	defect	major	too much debug information	azawawi	jquelin	18 months
#321	fixed	closed	enhancement	major	API for adding entries to right click menu		pmakholm	18 months
#11	fixed	closed	enhancement	major	Add debugger from within the editor	szabgab	szabgab	18 months

Debug::Client

Ticket	Resolution	Status	Type	Priority	Summary	Owner	Reporter	Modified
#1494		new	defect	major	Debug-Client-0.24 tests hang	bowtie, szabgab	Schwern	11 days
#1469	fixed	closed	defect	major	Debug::Client 0.21_12 hangs on Windows	bowtie, szabgab	chorny	4 months
#1427	fixed	closed	enhancement	minor	Debug::Client 0.20 test failures against win32 or not!	bowtie	bowtie	11 months
#1370	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Debug::Client, @list context request fails against perl-5.15.6 (3 of n)	bowtie	bowtie	14 months
#1368	fixed	closed	defect	major	Debug::Client tests fail against perl-5.15.6 (2 of n)	bowtie	bowtie	17 months
#1367	fixed	closed	defect	minor	Debug::Client tests fail against perl-5.15.6 (1 of n)	bowtie	bowtie	17 months
#832	not relevant	closed	defect	major	GetOptions( spawns unsavedX tab and crash Padre in StepOver Debugging	szabgab	vrobin	18 months
#831	fixed	closed	defect	minor	CPAN Install, test failing caused by Term::Readline	szabgab	vrobin	18 months

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TODO

• Colours from themes, thanks subT
• Conditional Breakpoints next overhaul
  • or you could just use <Raw>
• Watches
• Actions use Raw
• E dumping to Output instead of Debug-Output

POD from Main.pm

=pod

=head1 STATUS

waiting until this Plug-in is working before migrating into Padre ( => 0.93 ) 
don't want to muck trunk.

To view Padre::DB::DebugBreakpoints use P-P-Cookbook::Recipie04 in trunk

We can now add and delete breakpoints via icon in debug simulation and Breakpoint panel.

Load breakpoints for current file, on load of Breakpoint panel.

Get breakpoint panel to only show current file and current project bp's only, 
inspired by vcs options

the debugger loads breakpoints from DB when started, for all files in current project. 
when debugger loads a new file ( current ) the current files BP's are add to the debugger, 
use L to see this.

changed breakpoint margin marker to ... so as to co-exist with diff margin markers,
and avoid information contamination due to colour washout of previous SMALLRECT.
Add Gray for not active with switched by debugger, also added new home made icons for step_....

add functionality from trunk so all icons mimic current debug implementation

look at displaying variables yes, but in a nice table (y 0) working

debug-output only viable when debugger running, on start of new debug first displays debugger help

Added buttons with colour letters to correspond to debuggers actions.

=head1 Feed Back

what options should be in Debugger Panel / Debug-Output Options

room for 3 more using coloured letters


=head1 BUGS AND LIMITATIONS 

=head2 debug options X & V sometimes produce the following

    You can't FIRSTKEY with the %~ hash at /home/kevin/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.14.1/lib/5.14.1/dumpvar.pl line 380
        ...propagated at /home/kevin/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.14.1/lib/5.14.1/perl5db.pl line 2438.
     at /home/kevin/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.14.1/lib/5.14.1/perl5db.pl line 2438
        DB::DB called at sandbox 06 line 29
    Debugged program terminated.  Use q to quit or R to restart,
      use o inhibit_exit to avoid stopping after program termination,
      h q, h R or h o to get additional info.

=head2 entities in file names

    Printing in line 636 of /home/kevin/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.14.1/lib/site_perl/5.14.1/Debug/Client.pm:
    "/usr/src/Padre/Pad�e-Plugin-Debug/scripts/ExSewi.pm"
    Printing in line 146 of /usr/src/Padre/Padre-Plugin-Debug/lib/Padre/Plugin/Debug/Debugger.pm:
    "/usr/src/Padre/Pad�e-Plugin-Debug/scripts/ExSewi.pm"
    No such file or directory when trying to open '/usr/src/Padre/Pad�e-Plugin-Debug/scripts/ExSewi.pm' at /usr/src/Padre/Padre/lib/Padre/Wx/Main.pm line 4043.

=cut

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Debug1

Debug::Client

• Padre up to and including 0.92 requires Debug::Client 0.12

Debug::Client 0.12	Padre <= 0.92

Description

Run your code under a debugger with real-time display of results

TBD

• Debugger supports Stepping, Breakpoints, Watches, Variable evaluation, Stack module #11

Planning for a new version of the debugger:

• The debugger can be launched by any of the following: Run / Step In / Step Over / Step Out / Run till breakpoint
  • Run would stop at the first statement and it will be greyed out once the debugger is running
  • Once the debugger is running the saved breakpoints of all the files belonging to this thing will be sent over.
    • The question what does 'this thing' mean? Which files belong to the current run?
    • Files that are currently open in the editor? File that belong to the current session? File in the current project?
• Movement: Step In / Step Over / Step Out / Run till breakpoint
  • They do the corresponding action of the built in debugger

• Jump to current execution line ???

• Set a breakpoint (this should save the breakpoint in a config file and if the debugger is currently running then set the breakpoint in the debugger as well)
  • How should a breakpoint remembered? Filename and line number? Filename and sub name?
• Remove breakpoint
• List all breakpoints ???
• Show trace - shows the current trace - it should open a window (maybe in the right-side window of the debugger) and constantly update the trace until the user turns it off.
• Display value - the selected variable, or the one that is under the cursor will be added to the right side where its value will be show every time the debugger pauses the execution
• Show Value now - show the value of the currently selected variable
• Evaluate Expression... opens a window where you can type in arbitrary perl expression for example:
  • print 2 + 3
  • $z = 42
  • print $z
• Quit debugger ???

• Set watch - The user should be able to type in an arbitrary expression (if there was something selected then this will be the default) When that expression changes value the debugger will stop The expression should be saved belonging to the main script that is being executed. When the debugger is launched again these watch-points need to be set again (later we could display them to the user and ask the user if she wants to set them or not)
• Remove watch - remove an expression from the watch list (and from the saved watches)

Remember in database:

filename - breakpoint - line number - condition main-file - expression to display (e.g. a variable name or a more complex expression) main-file - show stack trace on/off

main-file - a history of expressions evaluated? main-file - a set of watches (conditional, non-location breakpoints)

Test

__END__

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