I started using Node Inspector to debug some of my Node applications. However, one thing i am not sure how to do is, once Node-inspector is attached to one Node app, how to detach and attach it to another Node app running on same box?
How can I debug multiple processes at the same time?
Update: If you are reading this in 2019, the below answer is out of date. You'd probably want to check out the current documentation or follow gtzilla answer: https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/debugging-getting-started/
First, start your node programs with different debug ports like so:
$ node script1.js --debug==5858
$ node script2.js --debug==5859
Then start node-inspector
$ node-inspector &
and open the web console in two tabs with
http://localhost:8080/debug?port=5858http://localhost:8080/debug?port=5859
As mentionned https://stackoverflow.com/a/18911247/1301197 you can specify a port with
node --inspect=7000 --inspect-brk app1.js
Then of course you just to specify a different port for each node server
node --inspect=7001 --inspect-brk app2.js
Either by port or by process id. For ports, use a different port for each process. On the command line:
node --inspect 8085 some_script_1.js
node --inspect 8086 some_script_2.js
node --inspect 9012 some_script_3.js
In a separate terminal window, you can attach to any of these processes with node inspect <host>:<port>. For example to attach to some_script_2.js on port 8086
node inspect 127.0.0.1:8086
Attaching to different processes is matter of changing the port, for example 9012 you would run
node inspect 127.0.0.1:9012
If you didn't start node on a separate, known port, you can also use the -p flag to attach directly to an existing process
node inspect -p <node_script_process_id>
On Linux and Mac OS use ps -A | grep node to find node process ids. Once a process is started, you can also attach the inspector by sending signal to the node process SIGUSR1 Reference
The node-inspect program (source) is separate from core node. Though it is bundled with nodejs. Node inspect reimplements node debug to address a limitation
For Chrome inspector protocol, there's only one: node --inspect ... This project tries to provide the missing second option by re-implementing node debug against the new protocol.
https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/debugging-getting-started/
You can view an interact with the debugger in Chrome. Just add additional connections under the Connections tab of the dedicated NodeJS DevTools window.
Worth noting there is a similar project, now deprecated, that is called node-inspector, which is separate from node-inspect Tested October, 2018 with node v10.11.0
If you use Chrome, then you can also use devtools directly with url like:
devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:9229/0cc79945-8386-4082-aabb-328341bfc953
*where 9229/0cc79945-8386-4082-aabb-328341bfc953 - part can be taken from node's output
For example, run first app with:
$ node --inspect-brk=7777 app.js
Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:7777/2df21a01-44ff-40c4-b6ff-1f839f81f9d6
and so the result url will be:
devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:7777/2df21a01-44ff-40c4-b6ff-1f839f81f9d6
then run second app instance with:
$ node --inspect-brk=7778 app.js
Debugger listening on ws://127.0.0.1:7778/d4e8d8ce-abe9-46c6-89b1-ad0616bdf237
and open it with:
devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:7778/d4e8d8ce-abe9-46c6-89b1-ad0616bdf237
