Sad to say, it is possible to write buggy programs using Ruby. Sorry
about that.
But not to worry! Ruby has several features that will help debug your
programs. We'll look at these features, and then we'll show some common
mistakes you can make in Ruby and how to fix them.
Ruby comes with a debugger,
which is conveniently built into the base
system. You can run the debugger by invoking the interpreter with the
-r debug option, along with any other Ruby options and the name of
your script:
ruby -r debug [options][programfile][arguments]
The debugger supports the usual range of features you'd expect,
including the ability to set breakpoints, to step into and step over
method calls, and to display stack frames and variables.
It can also list the instance methods defined for a particular object
or class, and allows you to list and control separate threads within
Ruby. Table 12.1 on page 131 lists all of
the commands that are available under the debugger.
If your Ruby has readline support enabled, you can use cursor
keys to
move back and forth in command history and use line editing commands to
amend previous input.
To give you an idea of what the Ruby debugger is like, here
is a sample session.
% ruby -rdebug t.rb
Debug.rb
Emacs support available.
t.rb:1:def fact(n)
(rdb:1) list 1-9
[1, 10] in t.rb
=> 1 def fact(n)
2 if n <= 0
3 1
4 else
5 n * fact(n-1)
6 end
7 end
8
9 p fact(5)
(rdb:1) b 2
Set breakpoint 1 at t.rb:2
(rdb:1) c
breakpoint 1, fact at t.rb:2
t.rb:2: if n <= 0
(rdb:1) disp n
1: n = 5
(rdb:1) del 1
(rdb:1) watch n==1
Set watchpoint 2
(rdb:1) c
watchpoint 2, fact at t.rb:fact
t.rb:1:def fact(n)
1: n = 1
(rdb:1) where
--> #1 t.rb:1:in `fact'
#2 t.rb:5:in `fact'
#3 t.rb:5:in `fact'
#4 t.rb:5:in `fact'
#5 t.rb:5:in `fact'
#6 t.rb:9
(rdb:1) del 2
(rdb:1) c
120
If you want to play with Ruby, there is a facility called Interactive
Ruby---irb, for short.
irb is essentially a Ruby ``shell'' similar in
concept to an operating system shell (complete with job control). It
provides an environment where you can ``play around'' with the
language in real time. You launch irb at the command prompt:
irb [irb-options][ruby_script][options]
irb will display the value of each expression as you complete it. For
instance:
% irb
irb(main):001:0> a = 1 +
irb(main):002:0* 2 * 3 /
irb(main):003:0* 4 % 5
2
irb(main):004:0> 2+2
4
irb(main):005:0> def test
irb(main):006:1> puts "Hello, world!"
irb(main):007:1> end
nil
irb(main):008:0> test
Hello, world!
nil
irb(main):009:0>
irb also allows you to create subsessions, each one of which may have
its own context. For example, you can create a subsession with the
same (top-level) context as the original session, or create a
subsession in the context of a particular class or instance. The
sample session shown in Figure 12.1 on page 126 is a bit longer,
but shows how you can create subsessions and switch between them.
Figure not available...
For a full description of all the commands that irb supports, see
the reference beginning on page 517.
As with the debugger, if your version of Ruby was built with GNU
Readline support, you can use arrow keys (as with Emacs) or vi-style
key bindings to edit individual lines or to go back and reexecute or
edit a previous line---just like a command shell.
irb is a great learning tool: it's very handy if you want to try out
an idea quickly and see if it works.
Ruby is designed to read a program in one pass; this means you can
pipe an entire program to Ruby's standard input and it will work just
fine.
We can take advantage of this feature to run Ruby code from inside an
editor. In Emacs, for instance, you can select a region of Ruby text
and use the command Meta-| to execute Ruby. The Ruby interpreter
will use the selected region as standard input and output will go to a
buffer named ``*Shell Command Output*.'' This feature has come in
quite handy for us while writing this book---just select a few lines
of Ruby in the middle of a paragraph and try it out!
You can do something similar in the vi editor using ``:!ruby''
which replaces the program text with its output, or
``:w!ruby'', which displays the output without
affecting the buffer. Other editors have similar features.
While we are on the subject, this would probably be a good place to
mention that there is a Ruby mode for Emacs included in the
distribution as misc/ruby-mode.el. There are also several
syntax-highlighting modules for vim (an enhanced version of the vi
editor), jed, and other editors available on the net as well. Check
the Ruby FAQ for current locations and availability.
So you've read through enough of the book, you start to write your
very own Ruby program, and it doesn't work. Here's a list of common
gotchas and other tips.
Attribute setter not being called.
Within an object, Ruby will
parse setter= as an assignment to a local variable, not as a
method call. Use self.setter= to indicate the method call.
A parse error
at the last line of the source often
indicates a missing end keyword.
Make sure that the type of the object you are using is what you
think it is. If in doubt, use Object#type to check the type
of an object.
Make sure that your methods start with a lowercase letter and
that classes and constants start with an uppercase letter.
If you happen to forget a ``,'' in an argument
list---especially to print---you can produce some very odd error messages.
Block parameters are actually local variables. If an existing
local of the same name exists when the block executes, that
variable will be modified by the call to the block. This may or may
not be a good thing.
Watch out for precedence, especially when using {}
instead of do/end.
Make sure that the open parenthesis of a method's parameter
list butts up against the end of the method name with no
intervening spaces.
Output written to a terminal may be buffered. This means that
you may not see a message you write immediately.
In addition, if you write
messages to both $stdout and $stderr, the output may
not appear in the order you were expecting. Always use nonbuffered
I/O (set sync=true) for debug messages.
If numbers don't come out right, perhaps they're strings. Text
read from a file will be a String, and will not be
automatically converted to a number by Ruby. A call to to_i
will work wonders. A
common mistake Perl programmers make is:
while gets
num1, num2 = split /,/
# ...
end
Unintended aliasing---if you are using an object as the key of
a hash, make sure it doesn't change its hash value (or arrange to
call Hash#rehash if it does).
Use trace_var to watch when a variable changes value.
Use the debugger.
Use Object#freeze. If you suspect that some unknown
portion of code is setting a variable to a bogus value, try
freezing the variable. The culprit will then be caught during the
attempt to modify the variable.
There's one major technique that makes writing Ruby code both easier
and more fun. Develop your applications incrementally.
Write a
few lines of code, then run them. Write a few more, then run those.
One of the major benefits of an untyped language is that things don't
have to be complete before you use them.
Ruby is an interpreted, high-level language, and as such it may not
perform as fast as a lower-level language such as C. In this section,
we'll list some basic things you can do to improve performance; also
have a look in the index
under Performance for other pointers.
Try defining the variables used in a block before the block executes.
When iterating over a very large set of elements, you can improve
execution speed somewhat by predeclaring any iterator variables. In
the first example below, Ruby has to create new x and y
variables
on each
iteration, but in the second version it doesn't. We'll use the
benchmark package from the Ruby Application Archive to compare
the loops:
require "benchmark"
include Benchmark
n = 1000000
bm(12) do |test|
test.report("normal:") do
n.times do |x|
y = x + 1
end
end
test.report("predefine:") do
x = y = 0
n.times do |x|
y = x + 1
end
end
end
produces:
user system total real
normal: 2.450000 0.020000 2.470000 ( 2.468109)
predefine: 2.140000 0.020000 2.160000 ( 2.155307)
Ruby comes with a code profiler (documentation begins on
on page 454). In and of itself, that isn't too surprising,
but when you realize that the profiler is written in just about 50
lines of Ruby, that makes
for a pretty impressive language.
You can add profiling to your code using the command-line option
-r profile, or from within the code using require
"profile". For example:
require "profile"
class Peter
def initialize(amt)
@value = amt
end
def rob(amt)
@value -= amt
amt
end
end
class Paul
def initialize
@value = 0
end
def pay(amt)
@value += amt
amt
end
end
peter = Peter.new(1000)
paul = Paul.new
1000.times do
paul.pay(peter.rob(10))
end
Run this, and you'll get something like the following.
With the profiler, you can quickly identify and fix bottlenecks.
Remember to check the code without the profiler afterward,
though---sometimes the slowdown the profiler introduces can mask other
problems.
Ruby is a wonderfully transparent and expressive language, but it does
not relieve the programmer of the need to apply common sense: creating
unnecessary objects, performing unneeded work, and creating generally
bloated code are wasteful in any language.
Debugger commands
b[reak] [file:]line
Set breakpoint at given line in file
(default current file).
b[reak] [file:]name
Set breakpoint at method in file.
b[reak]
Display breakpoints and watchpoints.
wat[ch] expr
Break when expression becomes true.
del[ete] [nnn]
Delete breakpoint nnn (default all).
disp[lay] expr
Display value of nnn every time debugger gets control.
disp[lay]
Show current displays.
undisp[lay] [nnn]
Remove display (default all).
c[ont]
Continue execution.
s[tep] nnn=1
Execute next nnn lines, stepping into methods.
n[ext] nnn=1
Execute next nnn lines, stepping over methods.
fi[nish]
Finish execution of the current function.
q[uit]
Exit the debugger.
w[here]
Display current stack frame.
f[rame]
Synonym for where.
l[ist] [start--end]
List source lines from start to end.
up nnn=1
Move up nnn levels in the stack frame.
down nnn=1
Move down nnn levels in the stack frame.
v[ar] g[lobal]
Display global variables.
v[ar] l[ocal]
Display local variables.
v[ar] i[stance] obj
Display instance variables of obj.
v[ar] c[onst] Name
Display constants in class or module name.
m[ethod] i[nstance] obj
Display instance methods of
obj.
m[ethod] Name
Display instance methods of the class or module name.
th[read] l[ist]
List all threads.
th[read] [c[ur[rent]]]
Display status of current thread.
th[read] [c[ur[rent]]] nnn
Make thread nnn current and
stop it.
th[read] stop nnn
Make thread nnn current and stop it.
th[read] resume nnn
Resume thread nnn.
[p] expr
Evaluate expr in the current context. expr may
include assignment to variables and method invocations.
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!ruby