If you want to seriously develop a nodejs application, you can't continue to put console.log() statements everywhere. It's just a pain! That's why every modern language has debug support via various tools.

In NodeJS debugging can be also done via command line - it's not point n' click, but it's still easy and straightforward.

I want tell lies to you, I debug my applications in a IDE :) But if I'm debugging something over ssh, this tool comes in hand.

An example file to play with

Save this file as book.js :

let book = {
  title: 'NodeJS for dummies',
  ISBN: '1234567'
};

book.title = 'cooking with Trump';
book.category = 'recipes';

console.log(book);

debug!

To run this file you can launch node book.js; however, in case you want to debug you just add an option:

$ node debug book.js 

< Debugger listening on 127.0.0.1:5858
connecting to 127.0.0.1:5858 ... ok
break in book.js:1
> 1 let book = {
  2   title: 'NodeJS for dummies',
  3   ISBN: '1234567'
debug>

Let's skip the first two lines, they are just diplayed for nerds.

Nodejs has blocked the execution at line 1 of the file, as you can see from the > mark.

It's best to say now that when NodeJS blocks at a line, the line is NOT executed. So, in the example, we are before the first istruction is ever executed.

To continue to the next line, press n(next) and hit Enter:

debug> n
break in book.js:6
  4 };
  5
> 6 book.title = 'cooking with Trump';
  7 book.category = 'recipes'
  8

Now the first line has been executed (the creation of the book object); node has now stopped to the next executable instruction.

In this easy example, going from one instruction to another using n might be interesting, but complex applications can contain thousands of lines of code, so jumping with n is not a great idea. Exit from debug for now.

To exit from the debugger you can type quit or press Ctrl+C twice.

We might want to stop at a specific point, for example before setting the category attribute to the book:

...
book.title = 'cooking with Trump';
debugger; 
book.category = 'recipes';
...

if we want to jump directly to the place where the debugger instruction is, you can just hit c (continue):

debug> c
break in book.js:7
  5
  6 book.title = 'cooking with Trump'
> 7 debugger;
  8 book.category = 'recipes'
  9
debug>

As you can see the debugger has now stopped at line 7, where the debugger instruction was. It's important to say that debugger instruction is ignored when running the application normally.

Ok, now we know how to stop in a nodejs application, but how can we inspect the value of objects?

just hit repl:

debug> repl
Press Ctrl + C to leave debug repl
>

Now we are in a Javascript console, like the one we have in a browser. we can execute expressions like var a = 1+3; the interesting thing is that we have access to variables defined until the break point: infact we can inspect our book variable and see that ...

> book
{ title: 'cooking with Trump', ISBN: '1234567' }

...category attribute is not defined, since it will be executed later, at line 8.

Using repl you can also modify the value of objects, and this is great if you are in a loop and want to go directly to the value that you want, or to simulate complex cases.

To exit from repl just hit Ctrl+C to return to debug> prompt.

Now you can debug like a boss

Show this to your friends, they'll respect you more after this.