enso/docs/debugger

layout	title	category	tags	order
section-summary	Debugger	debugger	debugger repl readme	0

Enso Debugger

The Enso Debugger allows amongst other things, to execute arbitrary expressions in a given execution context - this is used to implement a debugging REPL. The REPL can be launched when triggering a breakpoint in the code.

This folder contains all documentation pertaining to the REPL and the debugger, which is broken up as follows:

• The Enso Debugger Protocol: The protocol for the Debugger

Chrome Developer Tools Debugger

As a well written citizen of the GraalVM project the Enso language can be used with existing tools available for the overall platform. One of them is Chrome Debugger and Enso language is fully integrated with it. Launch the bin/enso executable with additional --inspect option and debug your Enso programs in Chrome Developer Tools.

enso$ ./built-distribution/enso-engine-*/enso-*/bin/enso --inspect --run ./test/Tests/src/Data/Numbers_Spec.enso
Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:9229/Wugyrg9
For help, see: https://www.graalvm.org/tools/chrome-debugger
E.g. in Chrome open: devtools://devtools/bundled/js_app.html?ws=127.0.0.1:9229/Wugyrg9

copy the printed URL into chrome browser and you should see:

Step in, step over, set breakpoints, watch values of the variables as well as evaluate arbitrary expressions in the console. Note that as of December 2022, with GraalVM 22.3.0, there is a well-known bug in Truffle that causes NullPointerException when a host object gets into the chrome inspector. There is a workaround for that, but it may not work in certain situations. Therefore, if you encounter NullPointerException thrown from

at org.graalvm.truffle/com.oracle.truffle.polyglot.PolyglotContextImpl.getContext(PolyglotContextImpl.java:685)

simply ignore it. It will be handled within the debugger and should not affect the rest of the environment.

Debugging Enso and Java Code at Once

Enso libraries are written in a mixture of Enso code and Java libraries. Debugging both sides (the Java as well as Enso code) is possible with a decent IDE.

Get NetBeans version 13 or newer or VS Code with Apache Language Server extension and start listening on port 5005 with Debug/Attach Debugger or by specifying following debug configuration in VSCode:

{
  "name": "Listen to 5005",
  "type": "java+",
  "request": "attach",
  "listen": "true",
  "hostName": "localhost",
  "port": "5005"
}

Then it is just about executing following Sbt command which builds CLI version of the engine, launches it in debug mode and passes all other arguments to the started process:

sbt:enso> runEngineDistribution --debug --run ./test/Tests/src/Data/Numbers_Spec.enso

Alternatively you can pass in special JVM arguments when launching the bin/enso launcher:

enso$ JAVA_OPTS=-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=n,address=5005 ./built-distribution/enso-engine-*/enso-*/bin/enso --run ./test/Tests/src/Data/Numbers_Spec.enso

As soon as the debuggee connects and the Enso language starts - choose the Toggle Pause in GraalVM Script button in the toolbar:

and your execution shall stop on the next .enso line of code. This mode allows to debug both - the Enso code as well as Java code. The stack traces shows a mixture of Java and Enso stack frames by default. Right-clicking on the thread allows one to switch to plain Java view (with a way more stack frames) and back. Analyzing low level details as well as Enso developer point of view shall be simple with such tool.