Debugging and Profiling

To enable debugging or profiling copy DEBUG_template.toml to DEBUG.toml and edit it

How create bash script for offline debugging from console

in DEBUG.toml set create_bash_script = true
call inkstitch.py extension from inkscape to create bash script named by bash_file_base in DEBUG.toml
run bash script from console

Enable debugging

set debug_type to one of - vscode, pycharm, pydev, see below for details
- debug_type = vscode - debugpy for vscode editor
- debug_type = pycharm - pydevd-pycharm for pycharm editor
- debug_type = pydev - pydevd for eclipse editor
set debug_enable = true in DEBUG.toml
or use command line argument -d in bash script
or set environment variable INKSTITCH_DEBUG_ENABLE = True (or 1 or yes or y)

Enable profiling

set profiler_type to one of - cprofile, profile, pyinstrument
- profiler_type = cprofile - cProfile profiler
- profiler_type = profile - profile profiler
- profiler_type = pyinstrument - pyinstrument profiler
set profile_enable = true in DEBUG.toml
or use command line argument -p in bash script
or set environment variable INKSTITCH_PROFILE_ENABLE = True (or 1 or yes or y)

Miscellaneous notes

to disable debugger when running from inkscape set disable_from_inkscape = true in DEBUG.toml
to change various output file names see DEBUG.toml
to disable waiting for debugger to attach (vscode editor) set wait_attach = false in DEBUG.toml
to prefer inkscape version of inkex module over pip version set prefer_pip_inkex = false in DEBUG.toml

How to debug with …

LiClipse

Install LiClipse – no need to install Eclipse first
Start debug server as described here: http://www.pydev.org/manual_adv_remote_debugger.html
- follow the “Note:” to enable the debug server menu item
Copy and edit a file named DEBUG.toml from DEBUG_template.toml next to inkstitch.py in your git clone and set debug_type = pydev
Run any extension and PyDev will start debugging.

PyCharm

You must use the PyCharm Professional Edition and not the Community Edition. Jetbrains has chosen to make remote debugging a Pro feature. To debug Inkscape python extensions, the extension code and Inkscape run independently of PyCharm, and only communicate with the debugger via a TCP socket. Thus, debugging is “remote,” even if it’s on the same machine, connected via the loopback interface.

pip install pydev_pycharm

pydev_pycharm is versioned frequently. Jetbrains suggests installing a version at least compatible with the current build. For example, if your PyCharm build, as found in menu PyCharm -> About Pycharm is 223.8617.48, you could do:

pip install pydevd-pycharm~=223.8617.48
From the Pycharm “Run” menu, choose Edit Configurations... and create a new configuration. Set IDE host name: to localhost and Port: to 5678. You can leave the default settings for all other choices.
Touch a file named DEBUG.toml at the top of your git repo, as above set debug_type = pycharm
Create a symbolic link in the Inkscape extensions directory to the top-level directory of your git repo. On a mac, for example:
```
cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/org.inkscape.Inkscape/config/inkscape/extensions/
ln -s <full path to the top level of your Ink/Stitch git repo>
```
On other architectures it may be:
```
cd ~/.config/inkscape/extensions
ln -s <full path to the top level of your Ink/Stitch git repo>
```
Remove any other Ink/Stitch files or references to Ink/Stitch from the extensions directory, or you’ll see duplicate entries in the Ink/Stitch extensions menu in Inkscape. Or use the multiversion setup.
In Pycharm, either click on the green “bug” icon if visible in the upper right or press Ctrl-D to start debugging.The PyCharm debugger pane will display the message “Waiting for process connection…”
Do some action in Inkscape which invokes Ink/Stitch extension code, and the debugger will be triggered. If you’ve left “Suspend after connect” checked in the Run configuration, PyCharm will pause in the self.log("Enabled PyDev debugger.) statement, below. Uncheck the box to have it continue automatically to your first set breakpoint.

VS Code

see:

Install the Python extension for VS Code

pip install debugpy

create .vscode/launch.json containing:

"configurations": [ ...
     {
        "name": "Python: Attach",
        "type": "python",
        "request": "attach",
        "connect": {
            "host": "localhost",
            "port": 5678
         }
     }
  ]

Touch a file named DEBUG.toml at the top of your git repo, as above set debug_type = vscode
Start the debug server in VS Code by clicking on the debug icon in the left pane select “Python: Attach” from the dropdown menu and click on the green arrow. The debug server will start and connect to already running python processes, but immediately exit if no python processes are running.

Profilers

Profile

Enable profiling as described above using profile. Ink/Stitch will then run under a profiler and dump the result to profile_stats. It will tell you what functions take how long to run.

Install snakeviz with pip install snakeviz.

Open the statistics with snakeviz profile_stats.prof. This will display a really useful interactive graph in your browser.