Say I am in IPython (e.g. on the new QT console), and that I call a C++ library that I wrote from it (e.g. using SWIG or Boost.Python). I would like to set a breakpoint in my C++ code and have the ability to interact with my C++ workspace (i.e. my variables when I hit the breakpoint) with IPython (e.g. plot my C++ variables, etc.).
In other words I would like to debug my C++ code from IPython. Is this at all possible? What are some tools I can use for this?
(assuming you are on Linux)
You just need gdb. First set up configuration telling gdb where your source files are by adding this to $HOME/.gdbinit:
directory absolute-path-to-source
Now start gdb python and on the gdb prompt do:
set args /usr/bin/ipython
run
You can't directly do gdb ipython because ipython is a script. Please refer to the gdb documentation from here on.
In general, you won't be able to debug C++ code directly with IPython. What you can do, though, is use a C++ debugger to debug your C++ code.
Essentially, you tell your C++ debugger to execute whatever process you need to use to run your code (this could be IPython itself), and set a breakpoint in your C++ code (your debugger will know to wait for the appropriate DLL to be loaded if it's in a DLL). From there, you are debugging your part of the code that is running in the IPython process.
