python / python/cpython

PYTHONBREAKPOINT should ignore non-importable breakpoints

Open
#126,177 8 comments 3 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

stdlib type-feature
Dominant language
Python
Stars
77.2k
Forks
36k
PR merge metrics
PR metrics pending

Description

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

I'd like to use ipdb rather than the built-in pdb by default for my breakpoints. However, if I set PYTHONBREAKPOINT="ipdb.set_trace" as a global shell environment variable, and the project does not have ipdb available, then all breakpoints are disabled:

/Users/tomforbes/.../cli.py:144: RuntimeWarning: Ignoring unimportable $PYTHONBREAKPOINT: "ipdb.set_trace"
  breakpoint()

IMO this isn't very user-friendly and can be quite annoying: I need to remember to export it on a per-project or per-shell basis. It would be great to fall back to the standard pdb breakpoint handler if the import fails.

If this is a compatability issue, perhaps a new PYTHONDEFAULTBREAKPOINT env variable could be added (and that can be set globally), which is used if available and falls back to pdb if not?

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

No response

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how PYTHONBREAKPOINT is handled when breakpoint() is called, including the existing RuntimeWarning for an unimportable handler. Define the fallback behavior for unavailable ipdb.set_trace while preserving the standard pdb handler, and add coverage for both importable and unavailable breakpoint handlers.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
developer-experience
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.