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Getting Setup

Step 1. Installing the Debugger

First, we'll clone the debugger locally, then we'll install its dependencies with Yarn. If you don't have Yarn, you can install it here.

Also, before you start, it's helpful to make sure you have node 7. We recommend, nvm for updating the latest node.

git clone https://github.com/devtools-html/debugger.html.git
cd debugger.html
yarn install

What should I do if I get an error?

Ask in our slack channel or file an issue issue here.

Why Yarn and not NPM?

We like Yarn because it makes sure everyone is using the same library versions.

Step 2. Start the Debugger

Next, we'll start the debugger and run it locally.

yarn start

Open http://localhost:8000 in any browser and launch Firefox or Chrome. You should now be able to select a tab to debug.

Congratulations! You're now up and running. 😅

What should I do if I get an error?

Ask in our slack channel or file an issue issue here.

Next Steps

Try this first activity if you want to start debugging the debugger! 👏

Appendix

Quick Setup

This setup is for people on the DevTools team and DevTools wizards.

curl -o- -L https://yarnpkg.com/install.sh | bash -s
git clone git@github.com:devtools-html/debugger.html.git
cd debugger.html
yarn install

# close firefox if it's already running
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin --start-debugger-server 6080 -P development

# create a new terminal tab
cd debugger.html
yarn start

Starting Firefox

If you're looking for an alternative to yarn run firefox, you have several alternatives.

Firefox CLI

1. Run firefox-bin from the command line
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin --start-debugger-server 6080 -P development

You'll be shown a prompt to create a new "development" profile. The development profile is where your remote development user settings will be kept. It's a good thing :)

2. Go to about:config and set these preferences

Navigate to about:config and accept any warning message. Then search for the following preferences and double click them to toggle their values to the following. example

  • devtools.debugger.remote-enabled to true
  • devtools.chrome.enabled to true
  • devtools.debugger.prompt-connection to false
3. Restart Firefox

Close firefox and re-open it with the firefox-bin command.

Firefox GCLI

  1. Open Firefox
  2. Press shift+F2 to open GCLI
  3. Type listen 6080 into GCLI

NOTE: This assumes that you've already set the other preferences in about:config.

Firefox using WebSocket transport

The default, traditional way to connect to Firefox uses a custom TCP protocol. However, Firefox also now supports connecting via WebSockets as well. To use this mode:

1. Create a configs/local.json file in your debugger.html clone with:
{
  "firefox": {
    "webSocketConnection": true,
    "webSocketHost": "localhost:6080"
  }
}
2. Enable WebSocket mode when opening the server socket
  • With the Firefox CLI approach, add the ws: prefix to the port:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin --start-debugger-server ws:6080 -P development
  • With the GCLI approach, enter listen 6080 websocket

Starting Chrome

There are two ways to run chrome. Here's the easy way to run chrome

yarn run chrome

Here's the slightly harder way.

 /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --remote-debugging-port=9222 --no-first-run --user-data-dir=/tmp/chrome-dev-profile

Note that the script just automates the command :)

Starting Node

It's easy to start Node in a mode where DevTools will find it:

  • --inspect - tells node to open a debugger server
  • --debug-brk - tells node to pause on the first statement
node --inspect --debug-brk ./node_modules/.bin/webpack

Note ./node_modules/.bin/webpack could be anything. We're often debugging webpack these days so it's often appropriate 😒

Note: Currently Node.js debugging is limited in some ways, there isn't support for seeing variables or the console, but you can manage breakpoints and navigate code execution (pause, step-in, step-over, etc.) in the debugger across various sources.

Windows + Linux setup

Windows and Linux should just work, but unfortunately there are several edge cases.

If you find any issues on these two platforms comment on these issues:

Firefox windows command

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -start-debugger-server 6080 -P development

Debugger examples

Starting Firefox or Chrome following the previous steps opens the browser on the online debugger examples.

If you want to hack the debugger even with being offline, you might want to get the repo containing those examples to run them locally.