How to use Byebug with a remote process (e.g., pow)

Question

How do I connect to a remote debugging instance of Byebug (for use with Pow, etc)?

Answer 1

Joseph's answer was good but confusing in some small ways. He places the starting of the byebug server in config/environments/development.rb, when it would be better in an initializer. Additionally the exporting of the environment variable go in .powenv or .powrc. This is how I got it to work.

In your gemfile:

gem 'byebug'

On the command line:

bundle install

If you are using Pow, add the following to .powenv:

export BYEBUGPORT=3001

If you are using other frameworks (e.g. just foreman), you may have to modify .env instead.

In config/initializers/byebug.rb

if Rails.env.development? and ENV['BYEBUGPORT']
  require 'byebug/core'
  Byebug.start_server 'localhost', ENV['BYEBUGPORT'].to_i
end

And finally on the command line:

touch tmp/restart.txt

Once you go to your pow site, the byebug server should be started. On the command line you can now do:

[bundle exec] byebug -R localhost:3001

Answer 2

I had to piece together information from several different sources to accomplish the above, so I thought I'd include a consolidated guide here for convenience:

• https://github.com/deivid-rodriguez/byebug/pull/29,
• https://github.com/deivid-rodriguez/byebug/pull/36,
• https://github.com/deivid-rodriguez/byebug/issues/31
• http://mines.mouldwarp.com/2012/04/pow-guard-and-rdebug-staying-in-web-app.html

Here are the steps:

1. In config/environments/development.rb, add:

   require 'byebug'
   
   #set in your .powconfig
   if ENV['RUBY_DEBUG_PORT']
     Byebug.start_server 'localhost', ENV['RUBY_DEBUG_PORT'].to_i
   else
     Byebug.start_server 'localhost'
   end
   

2. Restart Pow and visit yourapp.dev

3. Run the following:

   [bundle exec] byebug -R localhost:<port_you_defined_in_pow_config>
   

You should see a successful connection to the remote instance.