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INTRODUCTION

Screencast - https://vimeo.com/95775461

Vebugger is yet another debugger frontend plugin for Vim, created because I wasn't happy with the other debugger plugins I found. Vebugger currently supports:

  • Tracking the currently executed command in the source code
  • Debugger flow commands - step-in, step-over, step-out and continue
  • Breakpoints management
  • Evaluating expressions in the current executed scope
  • Messing with the program's state (changing values, calling functions)

Vebugger is built as a generic framework for building frontends for interactive shell debugger, and comes with implementations for:

  • GDB - doesn't need introduction...
  • LLDB - debugger based on LLVM for C-family languages
  • JDB - a Java debugger
  • Mdbg - a .NET debugger(Windows only)
  • PDB - a Python module for debugging Python scripts
  • RDebug - a Ruby command line option for debugging Ruby scripts
  • NInspect - node inspect for using node.js with the inspect protocal (tested with node.8)

Other implementations can be added with ease, and I will accept pull requests that add such implementations as long as they use Vim's |license|.

Vebugger is built under the following assumptions:

  • While command line debuggers share enough in common to make the creation of a framework such as Vebugger possible, the differences between them are too great to be expressed with regular expression. To support them all at least some code has to be written.
  • Unlike IDE users, Vim users tend to understand the tools that operate behind the scenes. While Vebugger automates the common features, it allows you to "open the hood" and interact with the debugger's shell directly so you could utilize the full power of your debugger.
  • I have no intention to aim for the lowest common denominator. If one debugger has a cool feature I want to support, I'll implement it even if the other debuggers don't have it.

Vebugger is developed under Linux. It doesn't work properly under Windows due to lack of PTY support. I have neither plans nor means to support OSX, but I will accept pull requests that add OSX support.

The features that don't work under windows are:

  • RDebug.
  • Displaying output from the debugged program.

REQUIREMENTS

Vebugger requires the vimproc plugin, obtainable from: https://github.com/Shougo/vimproc.vim. Notice that vimproc needs to be built - there are instructions in the GitHub page.

In order for Vebugger to use a debugger, that debugger must be installed and it's executable must be either be in the PATH or set with a global variable (see help vebugger-configuration). In case of RDebug and PDB, which are used from the Ruby and Python modules, the interpreter(ruby or python) is the one that must be installed and in the path.

USAGE

Run help vebugger-launching from Vim to learn how to launch the debugger.

Run help vebugger-usage from Vim to learn how to operate the debugger.