Introduction to Rebugger
Rebugger is an expression-level debugger for Julia. It has two modes of action:
- an "interpret" mode that lets you step through code, set breakpoints, and other manipulations common to "typical" debuggers;
- an "edit" mode that presents method bodies as objects for manipulation, allowing you to interactively play with the code at different stages of execution.
The name "Rebugger" has 3 meanings:
- it is a REPL-based debugger (more on that below)
- it is the Revise-based debugger
- it supports repeated-execution debugging
Installation
Begin with
(v1.0) pkg> add RebuggerYou can experiment with Rebugger with just
julia> using RebuggerIf you eventually decide you like Rebugger, you can optionally configure it so that it is always available (see Configuration).
Keyboard shortcuts
Most of Rebugger's functionality gets triggered by special keyboard shortcuts added to Julia's REPL. Unfortunately, different operating systems and desktop environments vary considerably in their key bindings, and it is possible that the default choices in Rebugger are already assigned other meanings on your platform. There does not appear to be any one set of choices that works on all platforms.
The best strategy is to try the demos in Usage; if the default shortcuts are already taken on your platform, then you can easily configure Rebugger to use different bindings (see Configuration).
Some platforms are known to require or benefit from special attention:
macOS
If you're on macOS, you may want to enable "Use option as the Meta key" in your Terminal settings to avoid the need to press Esc before each Rebugger command.
Ubuntu
The default meta key on some Ubuntu versions is left Alt, which is equivalent to Esc Alt on the default Gnome terminal emulator. However, even with this tip you may encounter problems because Rebugger's default key bindings may be assigned to activate menu options within the terminal window, and this appears not to be configurable. Affected users may wish to Customize keybindings.