Tracing Cheatsheet

Tracing shell scripts

Trace every line, showing literally when read and after shell expansion whenever executed:

$ export PS4='+(${BASH_SOURCE[0]}:${LINENO}): ${FUNCNAME[0]:+${FUNCNAME[0]}(): }'
$ bash -v -x <script>

Tracing goes to stderr, so can be saved to a file separate from normal program output on stdout, e.g. replace second line with

$ bash -v -x <script> 1>/tmp/OUT 2>/tmp/TRACE

Within the trace output, lines prefixed with ‘+’ are post-shell-expansion and the others are pre-shell-expansion.

In order to trace all the way down into scripts called from a toplevel script, the toplevel script will need to be edited to run them with ‘-v -x’ options.

Tracing python scripts

Trace everything:

$ python -m trace --trace <script>

Trace except for standard library modules:

$ python -m trace --trace --ignore-dir=/usr/lib/python<py-version> <script>

where <py-version> is python version from ‘python —version’ minus the trailing patch level, e.g. 2.7 or 3.2 rather than 2.7.4 or 3.2.2

Trace except for specific modules:

$ python -m trace --trace --ignore-module=<module 1> --ignore-module=<module 2> <script>

Tracing ruby scripts

Trace every line:

ruby -rtracer <script>

Tracing perl scripts

Trace every line:

$ export PERLDB_OPTS="NonStop AutoTrace"
$ perl -d <script>

Trace subroutine entry and exit points, displaying arg list:

$ export PERLDB_OPTS="NonStop frame=14"
$ perl -d <script>

Same, but copy trace to a file (can’t just redirect stdout/stderr):

$ export PERLDB_OPTS="NonStop frame=14 LineInfo=TRACE.out"
$ perl -d <script>

Tracing tcl scripts

Trace everything:

$ tclsh
% <paste excerpt below>
% source <script>

using this as the paste contents:

rename proc _proc
_proc proc {name arglist body} {
    uplevel 1 [list _proc $name $arglist $body]
    uplevel 1 [list trace add execution $name enterstep [list ::proc_start $name]]
}
_proc proc_start {name command op} {
    puts "$name >> $command"
}

Recipe taken from "Trace" section of the debug page of the Tcler’s Wiki, which is a page worth exploring further if needing to do much tcl debugging.

Tracing make builds

Normal tracing:

$ make --debug -n <target>

Note that ‘-n’ is a simulation mode so commands are not actually run, but it shows _all_ commands that would have been run (even commands that would otherwise be quieted by ‘@’ prefix).

Much improved tracing:

$ make SHELL='$(warning [$@ ($^) ($?)])bash'

This is essentially a suggestion from an excellent Dr. Dobbs article on Make debugging with the additional observation that often it can be passed in on the command line without editing the Makefile (unless some or all of the Makefiles are overriding SHELL already).

Tracing ant builds

Normal tracing:

$ ant -v <target>

Tracing cmake builds

Normal tracing:

$ cmake --trace <target>

Tracing with extra debug info:

$ cmake --trace --debug-output <target>

Tracing scons builds

Normal tracing:

$ scons --taskmastertrace=<logfile> <target>

where logfile can be a ‘-‘ to print dependency trace to stdout