slack-pdb 2.0.4

Collaboratively debug your Python application in Slack

Slackpdb is an adaptation of rpdb that, instead of opening a port and allowing you to debug over telnet, connects to a configurable Slack channel so you can collaboratively debug an application remotely.

import slackpdb
slackpdb.set_trace(
    token="<your slack token>",
    channel="#debugger_hangout",
)

Upon reaching set_trace(), your script will “hang” and the only way to get it to continue is to access slackpdb by talking to the user that connected to the above IRC channel.

To interact with the debugger, just send messages in the channel prefixed with the username it announces itself as, or simply “!”.

For example, the following two commands are equivalent, and each will display the pdb help screen (be sure to replace ‘MyHostname’ with whatever username the bot selected):

!help

slackpdb: help

Installation

From pip:

pip install slackpdb

Options

• token: A token to use for connecting to Slack; if you do not have one, you can quickly generate one at https://my.slack.com/services/new/bot. Note that if this is not specified, it may be gathered from the SLACKPDB_API_TOKEN environment variable, or, if the django option is set to True, from a Django setting named SLACKPDB_API_TOKEN.

• channel (REQUIRED): The name of the channel (starting with #).

• limit_access_to: A list of nicknames that are allowed to interact with the debugger.

• activation_timeout: Wait maximally this number of seconds for somebody to interact with the debugger in the channel before disconnecting and continuing execution. Default: 60 seconds.

• django: (Default: False) Attempt to gather Slack API token from a django setting named SLACKPDB_API_TOKEN if otherwise unspecified.

Security Disclaimer

The way that this library works is inherently dangerous; given that you’re able to execute arbitrary Python code from within your debugger, it is strongly recommended that you take all reasonable measures to ensure that you control who are able to execute debugger commands.

Just to make absolutely sure this is clear: you’re both responsible for determining what level of risk you are comfortable with, and for taking appropriate actions to mitigate that risk.

As is clearly and thunderously stated library’s license (see the included LICENSE.txt):

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.

Good luck, and happy debugging!

Troubleshooting

If you do not see the bot entering your specified channel, try increasing the logging level by adding the following lines above your trace to gather a little more information about problems that may have occurred while connecting to the IRC server:

import logging
logging.basicConfig(filename='/path/to/somewhere.log', level=logging.DEBUG)

Author(s)

Adam Coddington <[e-mail]> - http://adamcoddington.net/

This library is a fork of rpdb, and the underpinnings of this library are owed to Bertrand Janin <[e-mail]> - http://tamentis.com/ and all other contributors to rpdb <https://github.com/tamentis/rpdb> including the following:

• Ken Manheimer - @kenmanheimer

• Steven Willis - @onlynone

• Jorge Niedbalski R <[e-mail]>

• Cyprien Le Pannérer <[e-mail]>

• k4ml <[e-mail]>

• Sean M. Collins <[e-mail]>