Debugging of a long running process under Windows

[Propad]

Hello,
I know this issue pops up once in a while, but I haven't found a good
answer to it. I need to debug a long running application under
windows. The application is a combined java/python framework for
testing ECUs in the automotive industry. Basically, the Java GUI
(Eclipse-based) starts test-cases written in Python and provides the
console where the test-logs are seen. When there is a exception
somewhere in the testcases (or the underlying functionallity, also
written in Python), those are also logged, and then the framework
usually continues with the next command in the same test case.
I'd like to have a debugging facillity better than print statements. I
imagine:
a) something like a debugger poping up when I get an exception, or b)
something debugger-like poping up when it reaches a command I entered
something in the code,
or c) Me pressing on a button and getting a debugger-like-thing that
lets me look into the running, possibly halted code.
I've done some little experiments with the code module, which looks
nice but does not seem to get over the control from the java-part, and
with popen2("cmd"), which seems not even to work if I start the code
from a dosbox (the same console is keept), and same thing when strated
by the Java-App.
Just to add, using pdb (or pythonwin debugger) seems not to be an
option, as it makes the test-runs much slower.
Does somebody have an idea? It seems there used to be a python
debugger called Pygdb, able to attach to a running application, but
now it seems it disapeared (now there is a python debugger with the
same name, linked to ViM).
Thanx,
Propad

 

[Tim Golden]

I don't know how well Microsoft Windows allows for sending a process a
signal in Python, but if the Python signal module works reasonably
well on Microsoft Windows, then reread
http://bashdb.sourceforge.net/pydb/pydb/lib/node38.html

The answer is: not terribly well. (Or, rather: in a very
limited way). You should, however, be able to make use
of the SetConsoleCtrlHandler win32 api which is exposed
by pywin32's win32api module, or could be accessed via
ctypes:

http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetConsoleCtrlHandler_meth.html
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686016(VS.85).aspx

TJG

 

[R. Bernstein]

The answer is: not terribly well. (Or, rather: in a very
limited way). You should, however, be able to make use
of the SetConsoleCtrlHandler win32 api which is exposed
by pywin32's win32api module, or could be accessed via
ctypes:

http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32api__SetConsoleCtrlHandler_meth.html
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686016(VS.85).aspx

TJG

Interesting. Yes, it seems limited in that you get CTRL+C or
CTRL+BREAK which seems to map to one of CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT,
CTRL_LOGOFF_EVENT, or CTRL_SHUTDOWN_EVENT signals.

If someone is interested in hooking this into pydb's signal handling
mechanism, I'll consider adding in a future release. (If hacking the
configure script to test for the presense Microsoft Windows or the
win32api is tedious, I can manage doing that part.)

 

[Propad]

Hello,

thank you very much everybody. I gave up hope for an answer a long
time ago .
I'll take a look at the proposed solutions and give you a note.

Cheers,

Propad