Debugger : Debugger Commands : The HELP Facility

The HELP Facility

The Debugger comes with its own on-line help. When the Pdb prompt is displayed, you can get a list of available commands, their syntax, and usage. To activate the help facility and display a table of topics and commands for which help information is available, simply type:

Pdb > HELP

HISTORY number, !number, !text, !!

Help is organized hierarchically, from overall help to topics and from each topic to the commands that belong to it. After choosing a topic, the Help facility displays a general explanation of the topic and lists its corresponding commands. You can get further information about an individual command by referring to its name.

If you know exactly which topic or command you want help, you can avoid successively going through all hierarchical steps. Instead, ask for the needed help directly from the Debugger command level. For example:

Pdb > HELP TRACE

 

gives you general information on the topic of tracing, while:

Pdb > HELP CANCEL TRACE

 

provides specific information on the CANCEL TRACE command.