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Debugging Rails Applications
This guide introduces techniques for debugging Ruby on Rails applications.
After reading this guide, you will know:
- The purpose of debugging.
- How to track down problems and issues in your application that your tests aren't identifying.
- The different ways of debugging.
- How to analyze the stack trace.
View Helpers for Debugging
One common task is to inspect the contents of a variable. In Rails, you can do this with three methods:
debug
to_yaml
inspect
debug
The debug
helper will return a <pre> tag that renders the object using the YAML format. This will generate human-readable data from any object. For example, if you have this code in a view:
<%= debug @post %>
<p>
<b>Title:</b>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
You'll see something like this:
--- !ruby/object:Post
attributes:
updated_at: 2008-09-05 22:55:47
body: It's a very helpful guide for debugging your Rails app.
title: Rails debugging guide
published: t
id: "1"
created_at: 2008-09-05 22:55:47
attributes_cache: {}
Title: Rails debugging guide
to_yaml
Displaying an instance variable, or any other object or method, in YAML format can be achieved this way:
<%= simple_format @post.to_yaml %>
<p>
<b>Title:</b>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
The to_yaml
method converts the method to YAML format leaving it more readable, and then the simple_format
helper is used to render each line as in the console. This is how debug
method does its magic.
As a result of this, you will have something like this in your view:
--- !ruby/object:Post
attributes:
updated_at: 2008-09-05 22:55:47
body: It's a very helpful guide for debugging your Rails app.
title: Rails debugging guide
published: t
id: "1"
created_at: 2008-09-05 22:55:47
attributes_cache: {}
Title: Rails debugging guide
inspect
Another useful method for displaying object values is inspect
, especially when working with arrays or hashes. This will print the object value as a string. For example:
<%= [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].inspect %>
<p>
<b>Title:</b>
<%= @post.title %>
</p>
Will be rendered as follows:
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Title: Rails debugging guide
The Logger
It can also be useful to save information to log files at runtime. Rails maintains a separate log file for each runtime environment.
What is the Logger?
Rails makes use of the ActiveSupport::Logger
class to write log information. You can also substitute another logger such as Log4r
if you wish.
You can specify an alternative logger in your environment.rb
or any environment file:
Rails.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
Rails.logger = Log4r::Logger.new("Application Log")
Or in the Initializer
section, add any of the following
config.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
config.logger = Log4r::Logger.new("Application Log")
TIP: By default, each log is created under Rails.root/log/
and the log file is named after the environment in which the application is running.
Log Levels
When something is logged it's printed into the corresponding log if the log level of the message is equal or higher than the configured log level. If you want to know the current log level you can call the Rails.logger.level
method.
The available log levels are: :debug
, :info
, :warn
, :error
, :fatal
, and :unknown
, corresponding to the log level numbers from 0 up to 5 respectively. To change the default log level, use
config.log_level = :warn # In any environment initializer, or
Rails.logger.level = 0 # at any time
This is useful when you want to log under development or staging, but you don't want to flood your production log with unnecessary information.
TIP: The default Rails log level is info
in production mode and debug
in development and test mode.
Sending Messages
To write in the current log use the logger.(debug|info|warn|error|fatal)
method from within a controller, model or mailer:
logger.debug "Person attributes hash: #{@person.attributes.inspect}"
logger.info "Processing the request..."
logger.fatal "Terminating application, raised unrecoverable error!!!"
Here's an example of a method instrumented with extra logging:
class PostsController < ApplicationController
# ...
def create
@post = Post.new(params[:post])
logger.debug "New post: #{@post.attributes.inspect}"
logger.debug "Post should be valid: #{@post.valid?}"
if @post.save
flash[:notice] = 'Post was successfully created.'
logger.debug "The post was saved and now the user is going to be redirected..."
redirect_to(@post)
else
render action: "new"
end
end
# ...
end
Here's an example of the log generated when this controller action is executed:
Processing PostsController#create (for 127.0.0.1 at 2008-09-08 11:52:54) [POST]
Session ID: BAh7BzoMY3NyZl9pZCIlMDY5MWU1M2I1ZDRjODBlMzkyMWI1OTg2NWQyNzViZjYiCmZsYXNoSUM6J0FjdGl
vbkNvbnRyb2xsZXI6OkZsYXNoOjpGbGFzaEhhc2h7AAY6CkB1c2VkewA=--b18cd92fba90eacf8137e5f6b3b06c4d724596a4
Parameters: {"commit"=>"Create", "post"=>{"title"=>"Debugging Rails",
"body"=>"I'm learning how to print in logs!!!", "published"=>"0"},
"authenticity_token"=>"2059c1286e93402e389127b1153204e0d1e275dd", "action"=>"create", "controller"=>"posts"}
New post: {"updated_at"=>nil, "title"=>"Debugging Rails", "body"=>"I'm learning how to print in logs!!!",
"published"=>false, "created_at"=>nil}
Post should be valid: true
Post Create (0.000443) INSERT INTO "posts" ("updated_at", "title", "body", "published",
"created_at") VALUES('2008-09-08 14:52:54', 'Debugging Rails',
'I''m learning how to print in logs!!!', 'f', '2008-09-08 14:52:54')
The post was saved and now the user is going to be redirected...
Redirected to #<Post:0x20af760>
Completed in 0.01224 (81 reqs/sec) | DB: 0.00044 (3%) | 302 Found [http://localhost/posts]
Adding extra logging like this makes it easy to search for unexpected or unusual behavior in your logs. If you add extra logging, be sure to make sensible use of log levels to avoid filling your production logs with useless trivia.
Tagged Logging
When running multi-user, multi-account applications, it's often useful
to be able to filter the logs using some custom rules. TaggedLogging
in Active Support helps in doing exactly that by stamping log lines with subdomains, request ids, and anything else to aid debugging such applications.
logger = ActiveSupport::TaggedLogging.new(Logger.new(STDOUT))
logger.tagged("BCX") { logger.info "Stuff" } # Logs "[BCX] Stuff"
logger.tagged("BCX", "Jason") { logger.info "Stuff" } # Logs "[BCX] [Jason] Stuff"
logger.tagged("BCX") { logger.tagged("Jason") { logger.info "Stuff" } } # Logs "[BCX] [Jason] Stuff"
Impact of Logs on Performance
Logging will always have a small impact on performance of your rails app, particularly when logging to disk.However, there are a few subtleties:
Using the :debug
level will have a greater performance penalty than :fatal
,
as a far greater number of strings are being evaluated and written to the
log output (e.g. disk).
Another potential pitfall is that if you have many calls to Logger
like this
in your code:
logger.debug "Person attributes hash: #{@person.attributes.inspect}"
In the above example, There will be a performance impact even if the allowed
output level doesn't include debug. The reason is that Ruby has to evaluate
these strings, which includes instantiating the somewhat heavy String
object
and interpolating the variables, and which takes time.
Therefore, it's recommended to pass blocks to the logger methods, as these are
only evaluated if the output level is the same or included in the allowed level
(i.e. lazy loading). The same code rewritten would be:
logger.debug {"Person attributes hash: #{@person.attributes.inspect}"}
The contents of the block, and therefore the string interpolation, is only evaluated if debug is enabled. This performance savings is only really noticeable with large amounts of logging, but it's a good practice to employ.
Debugging with the byebug
gem
When your code is behaving in unexpected ways, you can try printing to logs or the console to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, there are times when this sort of error tracking is not effective in finding the root cause of a problem. When you actually need to journey into your running source code, the debugger is your best companion.
The debugger can also help you if you want to learn about the Rails source code but don't know where to start. Just debug any request to your application and use this guide to learn how to move from the code you have written deeper into Rails code.
Setup
You can use the byebug
gem to set breakpoints and step through live code in
Rails. To install it, just run:
$ gem install byebug
Inside any Rails application you can then invoke the debugger by calling the
byebug
method.
Here's an example:
class PeopleController < ApplicationController
def new
byebug
@person = Person.new
end
end
The Shell
As soon as your application calls the byebug
method, the debugger will be
started in a debugger shell inside the terminal window where you launched your
application server, and you will be placed at the debugger's prompt (byebug)
.
Before the prompt, the code around the line that is about to be run will be
displayed and the current line will be marked by '=>'. Like this:
[1, 10] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
3:
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: byebug
=> 8: @posts = Post.find_recent
9:
10: respond_to do |format|
11: format.html # index.html.erb
12: format.json { render json: @posts }
(byebug)
If you got there by a browser request, the browser tab containing the request will be hung until the debugger has finished and the trace has finished processing the entire request.
For example:
=> Booting WEBrick
=> Rails 4.1.0 application starting in development on http://0.0.0.0:3000
=> Run `rails server -h` for more startup options
=> Notice: server is listening on all interfaces (0.0.0.0). Consider using 127.0.0.1 (--binding option)
=> Ctrl-C to shutdown server
[2014-04-11 13:11:47] INFO WEBrick 1.3.1
[2014-04-11 13:11:47] INFO ruby 2.1.1 (2014-02-24) [i686-linux]
[2014-04-11 13:11:47] INFO WEBrick::HTTPServer#start: pid=6370 port=3000
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2014-04-11 13:11:48 +0200
ActiveRecord::SchemaMigration Load (0.2ms) SELECT "schema_migrations".* FROM "schema_migrations"
Processing by PostsController#index as HTML
[3, 12] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
3:
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: byebug
=> 8: @posts = Post.find_recent
9:
10: respond_to do |format|
11: format.html # index.html.erb
12: format.json { render json: @posts }
(byebug)
Now it's time to explore and dig into your application. A good place to start is
by asking the debugger for help. Type: help
(byebug) help
byebug 2.7.0
Type 'help <command-name>' for help on a specific command
Available commands:
backtrace delete enable help list pry next restart source up
break disable eval info method ps save step var
catch display exit interrupt next putl set thread
condition down finish irb p quit show trace
continue edit frame kill pp reload skip undisplay
TIP: To view the help menu for any command use help <command-name>
at the
debugger prompt. For example: help list
. You can abbreviate any debugging
command by supplying just enough letters to distinguish them from other
commands, so you can also use l
for the list
command, for example.
To see the previous ten lines you should type list-
(or l-
)
(byebug) l-
[1, 10] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
1 class PostsController < ApplicationController
2 before_action :set_post, only: [:show, :edit, :update, :destroy]
3
4 # GET /posts
5 # GET /posts.json
6 def index
7 byebug
8 @posts = Post.find_recent
9
10 respond_to do |format|
This way you can move inside the file, being able to see the code above and over
the line where you added the byebug
call. Finally, to see where you are in
the code again you can type list=
(byebug) list=
[3, 12] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
3:
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: byebug
=> 8: @posts = Post.find_recent
9:
10: respond_to do |format|
11: format.html # index.html.erb
12: format.json { render json: @posts }
(byebug)
The Context
When you start debugging your application, you will be placed in different contexts as you go through the different parts of the stack.
The debugger creates a context when a stopping point or an event is reached. The context has information about the suspended program which enables the debugger to inspect the frame stack, evaluate variables from the perspective of the debugged program, and contains information about the place where the debugged program is stopped.
At any time you can call the backtrace
command (or its alias where
) to print
the backtrace of the application. This can be very helpful to know how you got
where you are. If you ever wondered about how you got somewhere in your code,
then backtrace
will supply the answer.
(byebug) where
--> #0 PostsController.index
at /PathTo/project/test_app/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:8
#1 ActionController::ImplicitRender.send_action(method#String, *args#Array)
at /PathToGems/actionpack-4.1.0/lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:4
#2 AbstractController::Base.process_action(action#NilClass, *args#Array)
at /PathToGems/actionpack-4.1.0/lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:189
#3 ActionController::Rendering.process_action(action#NilClass, *args#NilClass)
at /PathToGems/actionpack-4.1.0/lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:10
...
The current frame is marked with -->
. You can move anywhere you want in this
trace (thus changing the context) by using the frame _n_
command, where n is
the specified frame number. If you do that, byebug
will display your new
context.
(byebug) frame 2
[184, 193] in /PathToGems/actionpack-4.1.0/lib/abstract_controller/base.rb
184: # is the intended way to override action dispatching.
185: #
186: # Notice that the first argument is the method to be dispatched
187: # which is *not* necessarily the same as the action name.
188: def process_action(method_name, *args)
=> 189: send_action(method_name, *args)
190: end
191:
192: # Actually call the method associated with the action. Override
193: # this method if you wish to change how action methods are called,
(byebug)
The available variables are the same as if you were running the code line by line. After all, that's what debugging is.
You can also use up [n]
(u
for abbreviated) and down [n]
commands in order
to change the context n frames up or down the stack respectively. n defaults
to one. Up in this case is towards higher-numbered stack frames, and down is
towards lower-numbered stack frames.
Threads
The debugger can list, stop, resume and switch between running threads by using
the thread
command (or the abbreviated th
). This command has a handful of
options:
thread
shows the current thread.thread list
is used to list all threads and their statuses. The plus + character and the number indicates the current thread of execution.thread stop _n_
stop thread n.thread resume _n_
resumes thread n.thread switch _n_
switches the current thread context to n.
This command is very helpful, among other occasions, when you are debugging concurrent threads and need to verify that there are no race conditions in your code.
Inspecting Variables
Any expression can be evaluated in the current context. To evaluate an expression, just type it!
This example shows how you can print the instance variables defined within the current context:
[3, 12] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
3:
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: byebug
=> 8: @posts = Post.find_recent
9:
10: respond_to do |format|
11: format.html # index.html.erb
12: format.json { render json: @posts }
(byebug) instance_variables
[:@_action_has_layout, :@_routes, :@_headers, :@_status, :@_request,
:@_response, :@_env, :@_prefixes, :@_lookup_context, :@_action_name,
:@_response_body, :@marked_for_same_origin_verification, :@_config]
As you may have figured out, all of the variables that you can access from a
controller are displayed. This list is dynamically updated as you execute code.
For example, run the next line using next
(you'll learn more about this
command later in this guide).
(byebug) next
[5, 14] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
5 # GET /posts.json
6 def index
7 byebug
8 @posts = Post.find_recent
9
=> 10 respond_to do |format|
11 format.html # index.html.erb
12 format.json { render json: @posts }
13 end
14 end
15
(byebug)
And then ask again for the instance_variables:
(byebug) instance_variables.include? "@posts"
true
Now @posts
is included in the instance variables, because the line defining it
was executed.
TIP: You can also step into irb mode with the command irb
(of course!).
This way an irb session will be started within the context you invoked it. But
be warned: this is an experimental feature.
The var
method is the most convenient way to show variables and their values.
Let's let byebug
to help us with it.
(byebug) help var
v[ar] cl[ass] show class variables of self
v[ar] const <object> show constants of object
v[ar] g[lobal] show global variables
v[ar] i[nstance] <object> show instance variables of object
v[ar] l[ocal] show local variables
This is a great way to inspect the values of the current context variables. For example, to check that we have no local variables currently defined.
(byebug) var local
(byebug)
You can also inspect for an object method this way:
(byebug) var instance Post.new
@_start_transaction_state = {}
@aggregation_cache = {}
@association_cache = {}
@attributes = {"id"=>nil, "created_at"=>nil, "updated_at"=>nil}
@attributes_cache = {}
@changed_attributes = nil
...
TIP: The commands p
(print) and pp
(pretty print) can be used to evaluate
Ruby expressions and display the value of variables to the console.
You can use also display
to start watching variables. This is a good way of
tracking the values of a variable while the execution goes on.
(byebug) display @posts
1: @posts = nil
The variables inside the displaying list will be printed with their values after
you move in the stack. To stop displaying a variable use undisplay _n_
where
n is the variable number (1 in the last example).
Step by Step
Now you should know where you are in the running trace and be able to print the available variables. But lets continue and move on with the application execution.
Use step
(abbreviated s
) to continue running your program until the next
logical stopping point and return control to the debugger.
You may also use next
which is similar to step, but function or method calls
that appear within the line of code are executed without stopping.
TIP: You can also use step n
or next n
to move forwards n
steps at once.
The difference between next
and step
is that step
stops at the next line
of code executed, doing just a single step, while next
moves to the next line
without descending inside methods.
For example, consider the following situation:
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2014-04-11 13:39:23 +0200
Processing by PostsController#index as HTML
[1, 8] in /home/davidr/Proyectos/test_app/app/models/post.rb
1: class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
2:
3: def self.find_recent(limit = 10)
4: byebug
=> 5: where('created_at > ?', 1.week.ago).limit(limit)
6: end
7:
8: end
(byebug)
If we use next
, we want go deep inside method calls. Instead, byebug will go
to the next line within the same context. In this case, this is the last line of
the method, so byebug
will jump to next next line of the previous frame.
(byebug) next
Next went up a frame because previous frame finished
[4, 13] in /PathTo/project/test_app/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: @posts = Post.find_recent
8:
=> 9: respond_to do |format|
10: format.html # index.html.erb
11: format.json { render json: @posts }
12: end
13: end
(byebug)
If we use step
in the same situation, we will literally go the next ruby
instruction to be executed. In this case, the activesupport's week
method.
(byebug) step
[50, 59] in /PathToGems/activesupport-4.1.0/lib/active_support/core_ext/numeric/time.rb
50: ActiveSupport::Duration.new(self * 24.hours, [[:days, self]])
51: end
52: alias :day :days
53:
54: def weeks
=> 55: ActiveSupport::Duration.new(self * 7.days, [[:days, self * 7]])
56: end
57: alias :week :weeks
58:
59: def fortnights
(byebug)
This is one of the best ways to find bugs in your code, or perhaps in Ruby on Rails.
Breakpoints
A breakpoint makes your application stop whenever a certain point in the program is reached. The debugger shell is invoked in that line.
You can add breakpoints dynamically with the command break
(or just b
).
There are 3 possible ways of adding breakpoints manually:
break line
: set breakpoint in the line in the current source file.break file:line [if expression]
: set breakpoint in the line number inside the file. If an expression is given it must evaluated to true to fire up the debugger.break class(.|\#)method [if expression]
: set breakpoint in method (. and # for class and instance method respectively) defined in class. The expression works the same way as with file:line.
For example, in the previous situation
[4, 13] in /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb
4: # GET /posts
5: # GET /posts.json
6: def index
7: @posts = Post.find_recent
8:
=> 9: respond_to do |format|
10: format.html # index.html.erb
11: format.json { render json: @posts }
12: end
13: end
(byebug) break 11
Created breakpoint 1 at /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:11
Use info breakpoints _n_
or info break _n_
to list breakpoints. If you
supply a number, it lists that breakpoint. Otherwise it lists all breakpoints.
(byebug) info breakpoints
Num Enb What
1 y at /PathTo/project/app/controllers/posts_controller.rb:11
To delete breakpoints: use the command delete _n_
to remove the breakpoint
number n. If no number is specified, it deletes all breakpoints that are
currently active.
(byebug) delete 1
(byebug) info breakpoints
No breakpoints.
You can also enable or disable breakpoints:
enable breakpoints
: allow a breakpoints list or all of them if no list is specified, to stop your program. This is the default state when you create a breakpoint.disable breakpoints
: the breakpoints will have no effect on your program.
Catching Exceptions
The command catch exception-name
(or just cat exception-name
) can be used to
intercept an exception of type exception-name when there would otherwise be no
handler for it.
To list all active catchpoints use catch
.
Resuming Execution
There are two ways to resume execution of an application that is stopped in the debugger:
continue
[line-specification] (orc
): resume program execution, at the address where your script last stopped; any breakpoints set at that address are bypassed. The optional argument line-specification allows you to specify a line number to set a one-time breakpoint which is deleted when that breakpoint is reached.finish
[frame-number] (orfin
): execute until the selected stack frame returns. If no frame number is given, the application will run until the currently selected frame returns. The currently selected frame starts out the most-recent frame or 0 if no frame positioning (e.g up, down or frame) has been performed. If a frame number is given it will run until the specified frame returns.
Editing
Two commands allow you to open code from the debugger into an editor:
edit [file:line]
: edit file using the editor specified by the EDITOR environment variable. A specific line can also be given.
Quitting
To exit the debugger, use the quit
command (abbreviated q
), or its alias
exit
.
A simple quit tries to terminate all threads in effect. Therefore your server will be stopped and you will have to start it again.
Settings
byebug
has a few available options to tweak its behaviour:
set autoreload
: Reload source code when changed (default: true).set autolist
: Executelist
command on every breakpoint (default: true).set listsize _n_
: Set number of source lines to list by default to n (default: 10)set forcestep
: Make sure thenext
andstep
commands always move to a new line.
You can see the full list by using help set
. Use help set _subcommand_
to
learn about a particular set
command.
TIP: You can save these settings in an .byebugrc
file in your home directory.
The debugger reads these global settings when it starts. For example:
set forcestep
set listsize 25
Debugging Memory Leaks
A Ruby application (on Rails or not), can leak memory - either in the Ruby code or at the C code level.
In this section, you will learn how to find and fix such leaks by using tool such as Valgrind.
Valgrind
Valgrind is a Linux-only application for detecting C-based memory leaks and race conditions.
There are Valgrind tools that can automatically detect many memory management
and threading bugs, and profile your programs in detail. For example, if a C
extension in the interpreter calls malloc()
but doesn't properly call
free()
, this memory won't be available until the app terminates.
For further information on how to install Valgrind and use with Ruby, refer to Valgrind and Ruby by Evan Weaver.
Plugins for Debugging
There are some Rails plugins to help you to find errors and debug your application. Here is a list of useful plugins for debugging:
- Footnotes Every Rails page has footnotes that give request information and link back to your source via TextMate.
- Query Trace Adds query origin tracing to your logs.
- Query Reviewer This rails plugin not only runs "EXPLAIN" before each of your select queries in development, but provides a small DIV in the rendered output of each page with the summary of warnings for each query that it analyzed.
- Exception Notifier Provides a mailer object and a default set of templates for sending email notifications when errors occur in a Rails application.
- Better Errors Replaces the standard Rails error page with a new one containing more contextual information, like source code and variable inspection.
- RailsPanel Chrome extension for Rails development that will end your tailing of development.log. Have all information about your Rails app requests in the browser - in the Developer Tools panel. Provides insight to db/rendering/total times, parameter list, rendered views and more.