debugging elisp ?

debugging elisp ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

Is there a way to run a given package/file step by step and see how variables etc. evolve ?

Practically speaking I'm running package.el and I'd like to have a separate buffer where I see how things move under the hood.

Jean-Christophe

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2017-07-09, at 10:03, Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:

> Is there a way to run a given package/file step by step and see how variables etc. evolve ?
>
> Practically speaking I'm running package.el and I'd like to have a separate buffer where I see how things move under the hood.

That's exactly what Edebug does!

Evaluate this: (info "(elisp) Edebug") and have fun.

Hth,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

> On Jul 9, 2017, at 18:44, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2017-07-09, at 10:03, Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Is there a way to run a given package/file step by step and see how variables etc. evolve ?
>> 
>> Practically speaking I'm running package.el and I'd like to have a separate buffer where I see how things move under the hood.
> 
> That's exactly what Edebug does!

My limited understanding of the documentation tells me that I can't keep the debugger working during the whole package session. I can call it on package-list-packages and it will run until the package list is displayed, and then it quits.

Does that mean that I have to mark all the package functions for debugging ?

Jean-Christophe

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Noam Postavsky]

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 6:49 AM, Jean-Christophe Helary
<jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> My limited understanding of the documentation tells me that I can't keep the debugger working during the whole package session. I can call it on package-list-packages and it will run until the package list is displayed, and then it quits.
>
> Does that mean that I have to mark all the package functions for debugging ?

Yes, you can do that with the following code:

(require 'edebug)
(require 'package)
(mapatoms (lambda (s) (and (fboundp s)
                      (string-match-p "\\`package" (symbol-name s)))
            (edebug-instrument-function s)))

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

> On Jul 9, 2017, at 20:48, Noam Postavsky <npostavs@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 6:49 AM, Jean-Christophe Helary
> <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> My limited understanding of the documentation tells me that I can't keep the debugger working during the whole package session. I can call it on package-list-packages and it will run until the package list is displayed, and then it quits.
>> 
>> Does that mean that I have to mark all the package functions for debugging ?
> 
> Yes, you can do that with the following code:
> 
> (require 'edebug)
> (require 'package)
> (mapatoms (lambda (s) (and (fboundp s)
>                      (string-match-p "\\`package" (symbol-name s)))
>            (edebug-instrument-function s)))

Thank you very much.

So there is no way I can run package without marking all the functions for debugging?

Jean-Christophe 

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2017-07-09, at 13:48, Noam Postavsky <npostavs@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 6:49 AM, Jean-Christophe Helary
> <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> My limited understanding of the documentation tells me that I can't keep the debugger working during the whole package session. I can call it on package-list-packages and it will run until the package list is displayed, and then it quits.
>>
>> Does that mean that I have to mark all the package functions for debugging ?
>
> Yes, you can do that with the following code:
>
> (require 'edebug)
> (require 'package)
> (mapatoms (lambda (s) (and (fboundp s)
>                       (string-match-p "\\`package" (symbol-name s)))
>             (edebug-instrument-function s)))

Won't
M-x edebug-all-defuns
and then
M-x eval-buffer
in package.el work as well (and be easier)?

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Noam Postavsky]

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 7:59 AM, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> wrote:
>
> Won't
> M-x edebug-all-defuns
> and then
> M-x eval-buffer
> in package.el work as well (and be easier)?

Oh, yes, good point. I usually mark only some functions with
edebug-instrument-function in a dolist loop, so I didn't think of the
more straightforward way.

On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 7:58 AM, Jean-Christophe Helary
<jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> So there is no way I can run package without marking all the functions for debugging?

You can run package without marking it, but you can't step with edebug
through a function without without instrumenting it first. You can
instrument other functions while debugging if you see something
interesting, see (elisp) Instrumenting.

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

I tried all the proposed solutions but I don't get what I'd like to have.

What I'd like to have is:

I run package in a window and in a different window I have all the variables/messages etc. appearing as I work inside package.

Maybe my "step by step" wording did not reflect what I really meant. Now that I see how it works, it is way too cumbersome for what I want to do, which is basically have a view on all the internal data as the package is run.

Jean-Christophe

> On Jul 9, 2017, at 20:59, Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2017-07-09, at 13:48, Noam Postavsky <npostavs@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, Jul 9, 2017 at 6:49 AM, Jean-Christophe Helary
>> <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> My limited understanding of the documentation tells me that I can't keep the debugger working during the whole package session. I can call it on package-list-packages and it will run until the package list is displayed, and then it quits.
>>> 
>>> Does that mean that I have to mark all the package functions for debugging ?
>> 
>> Yes, you can do that with the following code:
>> 
>> (require 'edebug)
>> (require 'package)
>> (mapatoms (lambda (s) (and (fboundp s)
>>                      (string-match-p "\\`package" (symbol-name s)))
>>            (edebug-instrument-function s)))
> 
> Won't
> M-x edebug-all-defuns
> and then
> M-x eval-buffer
> in package.el work as well (and be easier)?
> 
> Best,
> 
> -- 
> Marcin Borkowski

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Michael Heerdegen]

Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com> writes:

> I tried all the proposed solutions but I don't get what I'd like to have.
>
> What I'd like to have is:
>
> I run package in a window and in a different window I have all the
> variables/messages etc. appearing as I work inside package.

You should have a look at trace.el if you haven't yet.  Not exactly what
you want, but a good tool for basic non-interactive inspection.


Michael.

Re: debugging elisp ?

[Jean-Christophe Helary]

> On Jul 10, 2017, at 22:31, Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:

>> I run package in a window and in a different window I have all the
>> variables/messages etc. appearing as I work inside package.
> 
> You should have a look at trace.el if you haven't yet.  Not exactly what
> you want, but a good tool for basic non-interactive inspection.

Thank you. I will try.

Jean-Christophe