debugutils - Debugging utilities

A small set of utilities useful for debugging misbehaving applications. Currently this focuses on ways to use pdb, the built-in Python debugger.

boltons.debugutils.pdb_on_signal(signalnum=None)[source]

Installs a signal handler for signalnum, which defaults to SIGINT, or keyboard interrupt/ctrl-c. This signal handler launches a pdb breakpoint. Results vary in concurrent systems, but this technique can be useful for debugging infinite loops, or easily getting into deep call stacks.

Parameters:signalnum (int) – The signal number of the signal to handle with pdb. Defaults to signal.SIGINT, see signal for more information.
boltons.debugutils.pdb_on_exception(limit=100)[source]

Installs a handler which, instead of exiting, attaches a post-mortem pdb console whenever an unhandled exception is encountered.

Parameters:limit (int) – the max number of stack frames to display when printing the traceback

A similar effect can be achieved from the command-line using the following command:

python -m pdb your_code.py

But pdb_on_exception allows you to do this conditionally and within your application. To restore default behavior, just do:

sys.excepthook = sys.__excepthook__
boltons.debugutils.wrap_trace(obj, hook=<function trace_print_hook>, which=None, events=None, label=None)[source]

Monitor an object for interactions. Whenever code calls a method, gets an attribute, or sets an attribute, an event is called. By default the trace output is printed, but a custom tracing hook can be passed.

Parameters:
  • obj (object) – New- or old-style object to be traced. Built-in objects like lists and dicts also supported.
  • hook (callable) – A function called once for every event. See below for details.
  • which (str) – One or more attribute names to trace, or a function accepting attribute name and value, and returning True/False.
  • events (str) – One or more kinds of events to call hook on. Expected values are ['get', 'set', 'del', 'call', 'raise', 'return']. Defaults to all events.
  • label (str) – A name to associate with the traced object Defaults to hexadecimal memory address, similar to repr.

The object returned is not the same object as the one passed in. It will not pass identity checks. However, it will pass isinstance() checks, as it is a new instance of a new subtype of the object passed.