Debugging code in the Python interpreter

python debugging function interpreter functional-testing
xralf picture xralf · Apr 24, 2012 · Viewed 7.6k times · Source

I like testing functions in the Python interpreter. Is it possible to debug a function in the Python interpreter when I want to see more than a return value and a side effect?

If so, could you show basic debugger operations (launching the function with arguments, setting breakpoint, next step, step into, watching variable)? If not, how would you debug a function another way?

The point is, I want to debug only a particular function which will be supplied with arguments. I don't want to debug whole module code.

thank you for advice

Answer

Karthik Ananth picture Karthik Ananth · Apr 24, 2012

If you want to debug specific function you can using this - 

>>> import pdb
>>> import yourmodule
>>> pdb.run('yourmodule.foo()')

over the command line. pdb.set_trace() should be added in your function to break there.

More info on pdb can be seen here - http://docs.python.org/library/pdb.html

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