Use

ipdb exports functions to access the IPython debugger, which features tab completion, syntax highlighting, better tracebacks, better introspection with the same interface as the pdb module.

Example usage:

import ipdb
ipdb.set_trace()
ipdb.set_trace(context=5)  # will show five lines of code
                           # instead of the default three lines
ipdb.pm()
ipdb.run('x[0] = 3')
result = ipdb.runcall(function, arg0, arg1, kwarg='foo')
result = ipdb.runeval('f(1,2) - 3')

The post-mortem function, ipdb.pm(), is equivalent to the magic function %debug.

If you install ipdb with a tool which supports setuptools entry points, an ipdb script is made for you. You can use it to debug your python 2 scripts like

$ bin/ipdb mymodule.py

And for python 3

$ bin/ipdb3 mymodule.py

Alternatively with Python 2.7 only, you can also use

$ python -m ipdb mymodule.py

You can also enclose code with the with statement to launch ipdb if an exception is raised:

from ipdb import launch_ipdb_on_exception

with launch_ipdb_on_exception():
    [...]

Issues with stdout

Some tools, like nose fiddle with stdout.

Until ipdb==0.9.4, we tried to guess when we should also fiddle with stdout to support those tools. However, all strategies tried until 0.9.4 have proven brittle.

If you use nose or another tool that fiddles with stdout, you should explicitely ask for stdout fiddling by using ipdb like this

import ipdb
ipdb.sset_trace()
ipdb.spm()

from ipdb import slaunch_ipdb_on_exception
with slaunch_ipdb_on_exception():
    [...]

Development

ipdb source code and tracker are at https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb.

Pull requests should take care of updating the changelog HISTORY.txt.

Third-party support

0.12.1 (2019-07-26)

• Fix –help [native-api]

0.12 (2019-03-20)

• Drop support for Python 3.3.x [bmw]

• Stop deprecation warnings from being raised when IPython >= 5.1 is used. Support for IPython < 5.1 has been dropped. [bmw]

0.11 (2018-02-15)

• Simplify loading IPython and getting information from it. Drop support for python 2.6 Drop support for IPython < 5.0.0 [takluyver]

0.10.3 (2017-04-22)

• For users using python 2.6, do not install IPython >= 2.0.0. And for users using python 2.7, do not install IPython >= 6.0.0. [vphilippon]

• Drop support for python 3.2. [vphilippon]

• Command line usage consistent with pdb - Add argument commands [zvodd]

0.10.2 (2017-01-25)

• Ask IPython which debugger class to use. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/105 [gnebehay, JBKahn]

• ipdb.set_trace() does not ignore context arg anymore. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/93. [gnebehay, Garrett-R]

0.10.1 (2016-06-14)

• Support IPython 5.0. [ngoldbaum]

0.10.0 (2016-04-29)

• Stop trying to magically guess when stdout needs to be captured. Like needed by nose. Rather, provide a set of function that can be called explicitely when needed. [gotcha]

• drop support of IPython before 0.10.2

0.9.4 (2016-04-29)

• Fix Restart error when using python -m ipdb Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/93. [gotcha]

0.9.3 (2016-04-15)

• Don’t require users to pass a traceback to post_mortem. [Wilfred]

0.9.2 (2016-04-15)

• Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/93. [gotcha]

0.9.1 (2016-04-12)

• Reset sys.modules['__main__'] to original value. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/85 [gotcha]

• Fix support of IPython versions 0.x [asivokon]

0.9.0 (2016-02-22)

• Switch to revised BSD license (with approval of all contributors). Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/68 [lebedov, gotcha]

0.8.3 (2016-02-17)

• Don’t pass sys.argv to IPython for configuration. [emulbreh]

0.8.2 (2016-02-15)

• Fix lexical comparison for version numbers. [sas23]

• Allow configuring how many lines of code context are displayed by set_trace [JamshedVesuna]

• If an instance of IPython is already running its configuration will be loaded. [IxDay]

0.8.1 (2015-06-03)

• Make Nose support less invasive. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/52 Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/31 [blink1073, gotcha]

• Fix for post_mortem in context manager. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/20 [omergertel]

0.8 (2013-09-19)

• More Python 3 compatibility; implies dropping Python 2.5 support. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/37 [gotcha]

0.7.1 (2013-09-19)

• IPython 1.0 compatibility. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/44 [pgularski]

• Index into version_info in setup.py for Python 2.6 compatibility. [kynan]

• Add Travis CI configuration. [kynan]

0.7 (2012-07-06)

• Add launch_ipdb_on_exception context manager. Implies dropping Python 2.4 support. [Psycojoker]

• Wrap sys.excepthook only once. [marciomazza]

• Add GPL file and refer in headers. [stan3]

• Python 3 support. [Piet Delport]

• Basic tests. [msabramo]

• Added the functions runcall, runeval and run. [dimasad]

0.6.1 (2011-10-17)

• State dependency on IPython later or equal to 0.10. [gotcha]

0.6 (2011-09-01)

• Add setuptools console_scripts entry point. [akrito, gotcha]

• Nose support. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/8 [akaihola, gotcha]

0.5 (2011-08-05)

• IPython 0.11 support. [lebedov]

0.4 (2011-06-13)

• When used from IPython, use its colors. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/1 [gotcha]

• Fixed errors when exiting with “q”. [gotcha]

• Allow use of python -m ipdb mymodule.py. Python 2.7 only. Closes https://github.com/gotcha/ipdb/issues/3 [gotcha]

• Fixed post_mortem when the traceback is None. [maurits]

0.3 (2011-01-16)

• Add post_mortem() for Products.PDBDebugMode support. [Jean Jordaan]

• Moved to github.com.

0.2 (2010-10-20)

• Added pm(). [Paulo Benedict Ang]

0.1 (2010-04-26)

• First “non dev” release.