[Python-Dev] breakpoint() and $PYTHONBREAKPOINT

[Barry Warsaw]

For PEP 553, I think it’s a good idea to support the environment variable $PYTHONBREAKPOINT[*] but I’m stuck on a design question, so I’d like to get some feedback.

Should $PYTHONBREAKPOINT be consulted in breakpoint() or in sys.breakpointhook()?

If we support it in breakpoint() then it means if $PYTHONBREAKPOINT is set, Python will never call sys.breakpointhook() so programmatic override of that will be ignored.

If we support it in sys.breakpointhook(), then if you programmatically override that, $PYTHONBREAKPOINT will be ignored even if set.  Of course, any code that overrides sys.breakpointhook() could also consult $PYTHONBREAKPOINT if they want.

So how do we want it to work?  It seems like explicit code should override the environment variable, which should override the default, meaning that $PYTHONBREAKPOINT should be consulted only in breakpoint().  And if you set sys.breakpointhook() with something else, then oh well, Python just ignores $PYTHONBREAKPOINT.

Feedback welcome.
-Barry

[*] Probably not $PYTHONBREAKPOINTHOOK although if we choose to implement that in sys.breakpointhook(), it might still makes sense.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 273 bytes
Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/attachments/20170910/0f451f0e/attachment.sig>