From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2010-11-23T17:18:25+09:00
Subject: Re: debugging subprocess


On Nov 22, 2010, at 21:19 , Chad Boyd wrote:

> Ryan Davis wrote in post #963270:
>> On Nov 21, 2010, at 21:06 , Chad Boyd wrote:
>> 
>>> I'm using Autotest to automatically run my tests when I modify my code.
>>> I would like to use ruby-debug to debug some of my code.
>> 
>> These two activities are separate (testing vs debugging). Why are you
>> trying to debug via autotest? Why not just run your tests directly when
>> you need to debug?
> 
> True, they are separate.  I guess my answer to that question would be 
> laziness :)  It's easier to just quickly enter a debugger statement, 
> save off my file and let autotest rerun the test for me than to 
> open/switch to another terminal window and run the test manually.  Not 
> to mention I would need to either kill the autotest process before 
> entering my debugger statement, or after debugging, go back to the 
> autotest window that is now hanging from my debugger statement and 
> continue it (without seeing the debugging context).

I generally debug entirely through my tests, but if I were in your situation it'd look something like this:

+ normal development with autotest.
+ get stuck and need to poke internally.
+ switch to autotest terminal, suspend.
+ add breakpoint call where needed and save.
+ switch to autotest terminal, run rake or individual test.
+ poke until I understand the situation, quit.
+ remove breakpoint call and write a test to reproduce the problem
+ switch to autotest terminal and foreground the autotest process.

autotest has to read the output of the tests in order to function. It cannot let go of that mid-run.