Debugger

JupyterLab ships with a Debugger front-end by default.

This means that notebooks, code consoles and files can be debugged from JupyterLab directly!

Requirements

For the debugger to be enabled and visible, a kernel with support for debugging is required.

Here is a list of kernels that are known to be supporting the Jupyter Debug Protocol:

xeus-python: Jupyter kernel for the Python programming language
xeus-robot: Jupyter kernel for Robot Framework
ipykernel: IPython Kernel for Jupyter
common-lisp-jupyter: Common Lisp Kernel for Jupyter

Other Jupyter Kernels can also support debugging and be compatible with the JupyterLab debugger by implementing the Jupyter Debugger Protocol.

If you know of other kernels with support for debugging, please open a PR to add them to this list.

Here is an example of how to install ipykernel and xeus-python in a new conda environment:

bash

conda create -n jupyterlab-debugger -c conda-forge "jupyterlab>=3" "ipykernel>=6" xeus-python
conda activate jupyterlab-debugger

Usage

Here is a screencast to enable the debugger and set up breakpoints. The various steps are described more in depth below.

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:alt: A GIF showing how to enable the debugger within the kernel.

Use a kernel supporting debugger

First, you will need to check that the kernel supports debugging. If so, the bug icon in the upper-right corner of the notebook will be enabled.

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Debug code in notebook

Now let's enable the debugger for this notebook. The debugger can be enabled by toggling the bug button on in the upper-right corner of the notebook:

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Once debugging has been enabled, we can set breakpoints and step into the code.

Let's define a function that adds two elements:

python

def add(a, b):
   res = a + b
   return res

We can call the function and print the result:

python

result = add(1, 2)
print(result)

Now let's go back to the first code cell and click on the gutter on line number 2 to add a breakpoint:

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Then let's execute the second code cell by clicking on the _Run_ button:

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The execution stops where the breakpoint is set:

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Explore the code state

You can explore the code state with the debugger sidebar. It shows a variable explorer, a list of breakpoints, a list of kernel sources and enables navigating the call stack.

The sidebar may also include a source preview if "Show Sources in Main Area" setting is turned off.

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Variables

Variables can be explored using a tree view and a table view:

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Call stack

You can step into the code, and continue the execution using the debug actions:

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Breakpoints

New breakpoints can be added and removed while the execution is stopped, and they will be shown in the list of breakpoints:

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Source

By default the source of the current file being debugged will show up in the main area in a read-only editor view. The auto-opened source view widget will auto-close when the debugger steps into another file, or when the debugging session ends.

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If you would like to keep the source view open for longer, you can manually open it by clicking on the file in the "Kernel Sources" panel as manually opened files will not auto-close.

If you prefer the source to show up in the sidebar instead, you can turn off the "Show Sources in Main Area" setting in the Settings Editor which will make it display as another panel:

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