devtool - 能过Chromium DevTools运行Node.js程序
devtool
在Chrome DevTools中运行Node.js程序(using Electron).
# open a Node program in Chrome's DevTools devtool src/index.js
This allows you to profile, debug and develop typical Node.js programs with some of the features of Chrome DevTools.
The recording below shows setting breakpoints within an HTTP server.
Note: This tool is still in early stages. So far it has only been tested on a couple of OSX machines. :)
Install
Install globally with npm
.
npm install devtool -g
Usage
Run the command to open a new DevTools window.
Usage: devtool [entry] [opts] Options: --watch, -w enable file watching (for development) --quit, -q quit application on fatal errors --console, -c redirect console logs to terminal --index, -i specify a different index.html file --poll, -p enable polling when --watch is given --show, -s show the browser window (default false) --headless, -h do not open the DevTools window --browser-field, --bf resolve using "browser" field
Examples:
# watch/dev a JS file, with a custom index.html devtool src/index.js --index index.html --watch # redirect console and pipe results to a file devtool main.js -q -c > foo.txt # open a REPL window devtool # pipe content into process.stdin devtool writer.js < README.md # pass clean arg list to app.js devtool app.js --watch -- entry
You can specify --watch
multiple times to watch different files/globs. If a custom --index
is passed, it will also be watched for changes.
If --
is given, anything after it will be used as the arguments for the app's process.argv
. This way you can avoid polluting your program arguments with those specific to devtool
.
The --browser-field
makes the require()
statements respect the package.json "browser"
field.
Use Cases
Debugging / Profiling
For example, we can use this to profile and debug browserify, a node program that would not typically run inside Chrome DevTools. Here we use console.profile()
, a feature of Chrome.
// build.js var browserify = require('browserify'); // Start DevTools profiling... console.profile('build'); // Bundle some browser application browserify('client.js').bundle(function (err, src) { if (err) throw err; // Finish DevTools profiling... console.profileEnd('build'); });
Now we can run devtool
on our file:
devtool build.js
Some screenshots of the profiling and debugging experience:
Note: Performance may vary between Node and Electron, so always take the results with a grain of salt!
REPL
We can also use the DevTools Console as a basic Node REPL with some nice additional features. The require statements will be relative to your current working directory. You can run the command without any entry file, like this:
devtool
Browser APIs
You can also mix Node modules with browser APIs, such as Canvas and WebGL. See example/streetview.js and the respective script in package.json, which grabs a StreetView panorama with some Google Client APIs and writes the PNG image to process.stdout
.
For this, you may want to use the --bf
or --browser-field
flag so that modules like nets will use Web APIs where possible.
Example:
devtool street.js --index street.html --quit --bf > street.png
Result:
Grunt/Gulp
To debug Grunt/Gulp and other commands, you will need to pass the JavaScript file that runs them. You should also include --
to avoid any argument conflicts.
# same as "gulp watch" devtool node_modules/gulp/bin/gulp.js -c -- watch # same as "grunt" devtool node_modules/grunt-cli/bin/grunt -c --
Other Examples
See the example/ folder for more ideas, and the package.json scripts which run them.
- example/markdown.js - Pipes a
.md
file intoprocess.stdin
, then renders GitHub Flavored Markdown to a PNG image - example/es2015.js - ES2015 transpiling
- example/geolocate.js - prints current
[ latitude, longitude ]
tostdout
- example/http.js - a simple Node.js server that you can throw break points into
Features
This is built on Electron, so it includes the Console, Profile, Debugger, etc.
It also includes some additional features on top of Electron:
- Improved error handling (more detailed syntax errors in console)
- Improved source map support for required files
- Makes various Node features behave as expected, like
require.main
andprocess.argv
- Console redirection back to terminal (optional)
- File watching for development and quit-on-error flags for unit testing (e.g. continuous integration)
- Handles
process.exit
and error codes - Supports
"browser"
field resolution (optional)
Gotchas
Since this is running in Electron and Chromium, instead of Node, you might run into some oddities and gotchas.
- When the DevTools window first opens, you may need to reload the browser for source maps and debugging to work correctly (related: electron#2379)
window
and other browser APIs are present; this may affect modules using these globals to detect Browser/Node environments- You must call
window.close()
to stop the process; apps will not quit on their own - Certain modules that use native addons may not work within Electron
- Some applications may need to show either the window (with
--show
) or the DevTool (which is shown by default) in order to render Canvas/DOM/HTML/etc to a buffer
Roadmap / Contributing
This project is experimental and has not been tested on a wide range of applications or Node/OS environments. If you want to help, please open an issue or submit a PR. Some outstanding areas to explore:
- Adding a
--timeout
option to auto-close after X seconds - Improving syntax error handling, e.g. adding it to Sources panel
- Exposing an API for programmatic usage
- Adding unit tests
You can git clone
and npm install
this repo to start working from source.
See Also / Comparisons
hihat
If you like this, you might also like hihat. It is very similar, but more focused on running and testing browser applications. Hihat uses browserify to bundle everything into a single source file, and uses watchify for incremental file changes.
In some ways, devtool
is a spiritual successor to hihat
. The architecture is cleaner and better suited for large Node/Electron applications.
iron-node
Another Electron-based debugger is iron-node. iron-node
includes better support for native addons and a complex graphical interface that shows your package.json
and README.md
.
Whereas devtool
is more focused on the command-line, Unix-style piping/redirection, and Electron/Browser APIs for interesting use-cases (e.g. Google StreetView).
devtool
shims various features to behave more like Node.js (like require.main
and process.exit
) and overrides the internal require
mechanism for source maps, improved error handling and "browser"
field resolution.
node-inspector
You may also like node-inspector, which uses remote debugging instead of building on top of Electron.
This means your code will run in a true Node environment, without any window
or other Browser/Electron APIs that may pollute scope and cause problems with certain modules. It has stronger support for large Node.js applications (i.e. native addons) and more control over the DevTools instance (i.e. can inject breakpoints and support Network requests).
However, since it re-implements much of the debugging experience, it may feel clunky and fragile compared to developing inside the latest Chrome DevTools (e.g. console.profile()
does not exist).
Whereas devtool
aims to make the experience feel more familiar to those coming from Chrome DevTools, and also promotes other features like Browser/Electron APIs.
License
MIT, see LICENSE.md for details.