# Ruby/rails/debugger variable dump question **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 27, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-rails-debugger-variable-dump-question/180724 "2009-12-27T22:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralphshnelvar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ralphshnelvar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ralphshnelvar)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-rails-debugger-variable-dump-question/180724/1 "2009-12-27T22:59:58Z")
newbie here. (OT: Happy New Year, all.) I placed a debugger statement into my ROR app and run ruby script/server webrick --debugger My app hit the debugger statement. I then did a var local * * * (rdb:68) var local \_ =\> exception =\> No route matches “/xxx” with {:method=\>:get} handler =\> #\{}}, @redirected\_to=nil, [snipped a ton of stuff] ## “HTTP\_ACCEPT”=\>“text/html,application/xhtml+xml, application/xml;q=0.9,_/_;q=0.8”, “REQUEST\_METHOD”=\>“GET”, “HTTP\_CONNECTION”=\>“keep-alive”}, @request\_method=:get, @parameters={}\>, @parameters={}\>\>.\_\_bind\_1261677328\_946000\> (rdb:68) I have no idea how to interpret this or how to format this for pretty output. So … by guess and by gosh (and because I read it somewhere) I then ran irb inside the debugger and did * * * (rdb:68) @\_response #\{}}, @redirected\_to=nil, @writer=#Proc:0x0612469c@f:/Ralph-Rails-Apps/authlogic/vendor/rails/actionpack/lib/action\_controller/response.rb:46, @request=#\, @body=["", nil, [], []], @assigns=[], @header={“Cache-Control”=\>“no-cache”}, @status=200\> Since that was no better for me to understand, I tried (because I saw it somewhere) y @\_response inside irb I don’t even see y documented as a debugger command. * * * irb(#ApplicationController:0x6018a3c):002:0\> y @\_response — &id007 !ruby/object:ActionController::Response assigns: &id001 [] block: body: - “” - - \*id001 - [] header: &id005 !map:Rack::Utils::HeaderHash Cache-Control: no-cache redirected\_to: request: &id003 !ruby/object:ActionController::Request content\_type: env: rack.session.record: !ruby/object:ActiveRecord::SessionStore::Session attributes: updated\_at: 2009-12-24 06:54:00 session\_id: fab30d62f08ae89e5b87d68bb1647c3c id: “1” created\_at: 2009-12-24 06:54:00 data: | BAh7BiIKZmxhc2hJQzonQWN0aW9uQ29udHJvbGxlcjo6Rmxhc2g6OkZsYXNo SGFzaHsABjoKQHVzZWR7AA== ``` attributes_cache: {} data: flash: &id002 !map:ActionController::Flash::FlashHash {} action_controller.rescue.request: *id003 SERVER_NAME: localhost rack.request.cookie_hash: _session_id: fab30d62f08ae89e5b87d68bb1647c3c ``` [snipped a ton of stuff] ``` request: *id003 ``` helpers: !ruby/object:ActionView::Base::ProxyModule receiver: \*id008 view\_paths: !seq:ActionView::PathSet - !ruby/object:ActionView::ReloadableTemplate::ReloadablePath disk\_cache: {} ``` path: f:/Ralph-Rails-Apps/authlogic/app/views paths: {} ``` writer: !ruby/object:Proc {} =\> nil irb(#ApplicationController:0x6018a3c):003:0\> * * * That’s a bit better but still mostly uninterpretable to me. So … how would I get programmatic access to, say, SERVER\_NAME or the \_session\_id? Is there documentation on how to use the debugger other than “help” or page 216 in the Pickaxe book? ---
**Author:** ![ralphshnelvar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ralphshnelvar](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ralphshnelvar)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 1:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-rails-debugger-variable-dump-question/180724/2 "2009-12-28T01:27:22Z")
On Dec 27, 10:59 pm, Ralph S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > newbie here. > > (OT: Happy New Year, all.) > > I placed a debugger statement into my ROR app and run > ruby script/server webrick --debugger > > My app hit the debugger statement. [snip] > Since that was no better for me to understand, I tried (because I saw it > somewhere) > y @\_response > inside irb > > I don’t even see y documented as a debugger command. It’s not - it’s a method that is part of the ruby standard library: it dumps the argument passed to it as yaml. It’s mostly normal that this doesn’t make any sense to you - it’s exposing a lot of internal state from the response object. A good place to start would be to look at the api for the Response object and try the things you see there. > [snip] > That’s a bit better but still mostly uninterpretable to me. > > So … how would I get programmatic access to, say, SERVER\_NAME or the > \_session\_id? The debugger will run ruby code for you, so do exactly what you would do if you were writing code in that part of your app (eg if you’re in a controller you could look at request.host or request.env > Is there documentation on how to use the debugger other than “help” or > page 216 in the Pickaxe book? just FYI, ruby-debug is not the same as the debugger described in the pickaxe Fred > – > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. – You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Ruby on Rails: Talk” group. To post to this group, send email to removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid. For more options, visit this group at [http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en](http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en).