More parsing-friendly Python debugger locals() output [closed]

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I need the locals() text output to be easier to parse then what the default output is. I am using a IDE that I wrote in C that starts a tty() to run pdb and it captures the output from locals() and parses it into useable data for my IDE.

I wrote a few Python functions that can output the format I am looking for but I can't get the debugger to use those functions without including it directly in the source code I am trying to debug. I made a package (pdbext) from them and sending the import pdbext to pdb injects that into the code I am debugging in the current function as an another local instead of pdb loading it outside into the debugger itself. I want to avoid having to include a debug package in every source file.

I also tried to extend the pdb.Pdb class and include those functions as members in that class and use a do_parse_locals () class method. However pdb no longer worked. Typing a simple next would drop it back to the shell prompt.

What could I do to achieve this?

What I did was something similar to Lavi Kumar's answer without the aliases. In ~/.pdbrc I loaded the package with "_pdbext = imp.import_module ("pdbext.pdbext")" and accessed it at the (Pdb) prompt with "_pdbext.debug_disp_var_format (locals ())". It worked and that is also OK correct? Sorry I don't know how to format it properly and I don't think I want to answer it myself since I want to give credit to Lavi Kumar. Thank you also S Bonnet. — CharlieB
– CharlieB, Commented Nov 10 at 2:27
I ran into an issue. When pdb goes to another py file, it cannot find the _pdbext module: *** NameError: name '_pdbext' is not defined. — CharlieB
– CharlieB, Commented Nov 10 at 3:13
A related question was posted at stackoverflow.com/questions/79817159/… — mkrieger1
– mkrieger1, Commented Nov 12 at 9:33

Lavi Kumar · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-10 01:29:04Z

0

Put your custom formatting behind a pdb alias in a .pdbrc file, so you don’t have to touch the code being debugged.

Example ~/.pdbrc:

!import pdbext
alias pl !pdbext.print_locals(locals())

pdb loads .pdbrc on start, so now in any pdb session you can just type:

(Pdb) pl

and get your parse-friendly locals() output, without injecting imports into the target program or subclassing Pdb.

answered Nov 10 at 1:29

Lavi Kumar

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S Bonnet · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-10 06:23:31Z

0

The simplest way:


import sys
import os

# Add your pdbext to path if needed
sys.path.insert(0, '/path/to/your/pdbext')
import pdbext

def _format_locals_cmd():
    """Function accessible to pdb commands"""
    # Get the current frame from the debugger
    frame = sys._getframe(1)
    output = []
    for name, value in sorted(frame.f_locals.items()):
        if not name.startswith('__'):
            output.append(f"{name}|{type(value).__name__}|{repr(value)[:100]}")
    return '\n'.join(output)

# Now create pdb alias that calls it
alias pl !print(_format_locals_cmd())

edited Nov 10 at 6:23

answered Nov 9 at 22:24

S Bonnet

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1 Comment

mkrieger1 Nov 9 at 22:44

Where would the alias lines need to go? That's not valid Python syntax.

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