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layout	title	category	tags	summary
post	Debugging Ruby with the Pry debugger	ruby	[ruby pry debugging code]	What is Pry? How does it help me debug my Ruby?

What is Pry?

Pry is an interactive shell that provides an approachable interface to debugging Ruby. Most notably it allows for the ability to transverse a running Ruby program much like one would a filesystem.

Using Pry

Pry can be installed using gem install pry and be ran directly from your shell using pry.

By adding require pry to your Ruby code you can use Pry in your current project. Just requiring Pry will not start a session during execution however. For that, you must also include a breakpoint by adding binding.pry to your code.

NOTE: I prefer to invoke Pry with a breakpoint on one line (require 'pry'; binding.pry). This prevents me from forgetting to remove the require 'pry' line from the top of the file and accidentally submitting a PR.

Navigating the Shell

Once inside a Pry shell you can get a list of available commands by running help.

From that output you can see there are a plethora of executable commands. Don't be discouraged though, I made it for embarrassingly too long using only ls, step, puts my_variable_name, and exit-program

Simple Usage Guide

One thing I wish I had had when starting to use Pry was a "Simple Usage Guide". Below is just such a thing.

Create a Sample File

Create a file called pry_example.rb with the following contents

def output_hash(input_hash)
 puts input_hash
end

def set_baz(input_hash, input_value)
  input_hash[:baz] = input_value
end

require 'pry'; binding.pry

some_hash = {}
some_hash[:foo] = 'bar' 

output_hash(some_hash)

set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')

puts "Don't execute me"

Starting Pry

Run ruby pry_example.rb

[~/Playground/Blog]$ ruby pry_example.rb

Frame number: 0/1

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 11 :

     6:   input_hash[:baz] = input_value
     7: end
     8:
     9: require 'pry'; binding.pry
    10:
 => 11: some_hash = {}
    12: some_hash[:foo] = 'bar'
    13:
    14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')

[1] pry(main)>

As you can see we have halted execution and are at line 11 of our example program

Using `step`

To execute the current line and proceed to the next type step

[1] pry(main)> step

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 12 :

     7: end
     8:
     9: require 'pry'; binding.pry
    10:
    11: some_hash = {}
 => 12: some_hash[:foo] = 'bar'
    13:
    14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:

[1] pry(main):1>

Viewing Objects

To verify that line 11 was executed we can inspect the object by typing some_hash

[1] pry(main):1> some_hash
{}
[2] pry(main):1>

We can see here that some_hash is an empty array.

Run step again to execute line 12 and set some_hash[:foo] to bar

[2] pry(main):1> step

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 14 :

     9: require 'pry'; binding.pry
    10:
    11: some_hash = {}
    12: some_hash[:foo] = 'bar'
    13:
 => 14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:
    18: puts "Don't execute me"

[2] pry(main)>

Now we can see that some_hash contains the symbol :foo which has the value of bar

[2] pry(main)> some_hash
{:foo=>"bar"}
[3] pry(main)>

Using `whereami`

At any time during our execution we can show lines surrounding us with the command whereami

[3] pry(main)> whereami

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 14 :

     9: require 'pry'; binding.pry
    10:
    11: some_hash = {}
    12: some_hash[:foo] = 'bar'
    13:
 => 14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:
    18: puts "Don't execute me"

[4] pry(main)>

After doing this we can see that the method output_hash is about to be executed

Investigating Methods

We can view the output_hash method with show-method output_hash

[4] pry(main)> show-method output_hash

From: pry_example.rb @ line 1:
Owner: Object
Visibility: private
Number of lines: 3

def output_hash(input_hash)
 puts input_hash
end
[5] pry(main)>

After viewing the method we can step into it using step

[5] pry(main)> step

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 2 Object#output_hash:

    1: def output_hash(input_hash)
 => 2:  puts input_hash
    3: end

[5] pry(main)>

We can now see that we are inside the output_hash method

Technically, we now know that output_hash is a procedure and not a method, but such semantics are out of scope for this post.

We can view local variables in output_hash by using ls

[5] pry(main)> ls
self.methods: inspect  to_s
locals: _  __  _dir_  _ex_  _file_  _in_  _out_  _pry_  input_hash
[6] pry(main)>

We can inspect any of these variables with ls as well

Inspect input_hash by running ls input_hash

[6] pry(main)> ls input_hash
Enumerable#methods:
  all?   collect         cycle   drop_while  each_slice       redacted 
  any?   collect_concat  detect  each_cons   each_with_index  redacted
  chunk  count           drop    each_entry  each_with_object redacted
Hash#methods:
  ==     clear                 default=       delete_if  redacted
  []     compare_by_identity   default_proc   each       redacted
  []=    compare_by_identity?  default_proc=  each_key   redacted
  assoc  default               delete         each_pair  redacted
[7] pry(main)>

NOTE: Output here is redacted to shorten line length

As you can see input_hash is indeed a Hash

Also listed are the available methods for both the Hash and Enumerable classes

Run step to execute the puts input_hash line and return to our main code

[7] pry(main)> step
{:foo=>"bar"}

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 16 :

    11: some_hash = {}
    12: some_hash[:foo] = 'bar'
    13:
    14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
 => 16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:
    18: puts "Don't execute me"

[7] pry(main)>

As you can see the output of output_hash is sent to screen ({:foo=>"bar"})

Modifying Code During Runtime

Run step to go into the set_baz method

[7] pry(main)> step

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 6 Object#set_baz:

    5: def set_baz(input_hash, input_value)
 => 6:   input_hash[:baz] = input_value
    7: end

[7] pry(main)>

Since we are in a running Ruby session we can modify code during runtime

Let's change the value of input_value to eggs by running input_value = 'eggs'

[7] pry(main)> input_value = 'eggs'
=> "eggs"
[8] pry(main)>

Now execute line 6 with step

[8] pry(main)> step

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 18 :

    13:
    14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:
 => 18: puts "Don't execute me"

[8] pry(main)>

Now we can see set_baz set some_hash[:bar] to eggs by running puts some_hash;

[8] pry(main)> puts some_hash;
{:foo=>"bar", :baz=>"eggs"}
[9] pry(main)>

TIP: Adding ; to the end of Ruby commands will suppress extra shell output

Exiting Pry

After running whereami we see that we do not want to execute line 18

So run exit-program to end our Pry session

[9] pry(main)> whereami

From: /home/jerry/Playground/Blog/pry_example.rb @ line 18 :

    13:
    14: output_hash(some_hash)
    15:
    16: set_baz(some_hash, 'spam')
    17:
 => 18: puts "Don't execute me"

[10] pry(main)> exit-program
[~/Playground/Blog]$

Conclusion

As you can see, with just a few simple commands we can do some valuable debugging of our code. I personally use Pry daily in my current job (shakes fist at Ruby's nil errors)

While this post just scratches the surface of Pry, I highly recommend that you dig deeper. Learning more about Pry will significantly reduce headaches and increase efficiency.

Extra Resources

Below are some extra resources that I've found helpful for learning Pry

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