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3 | Syntactic Forms
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11 | Concurrency and Parallelism
12 | Macros
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15 | Operating System
16 | Memory Management
17 | Unsafe Operations
18 | Running Racket
| Bibliography
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▼ | 18 | Running Racket

18.1 | Running Racket or GRacket
18.2 | Libraries and Collections
18.3 | Interactive Help
18.4 | Interactive Module Loading
18.5 | Debugging
18.6 | Kernel Forms and Functions

► | 18.5 | Debugging

18.5.1 | Tracing

On this page:

18.5.1`` Tracing
trace
trace-define
trace-define-syntax
trace-lambda
trace-let
untrace
current-trace-notify
trace-call
current-trace-print-args
current-trace-print-results
current-prefix-in
current-prefix-out

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#### 18.5`` Debugging

Racket’s built-in debugging support is limited to context (i.e., “stack trace”) information that is printed with an exception. In some cases, disabling the JIT compiler can affect context information. The errortrace library supports more consistent (independent of the JIT compiler) and precise context information. The racket/trace library provides simple tracing support. Finally, the DrRacket programming environment provides much more debugging support.

##### 18.5.1`` Tracing

(require racket/trace) | package: base

The bindings documented in this section are provided by the racket/trace library, not racket/base or racket.

The racket/trace library mimics the tracing facility available in Chez Scheme.

> syntax (trace id ...)

Each id must be bound to a procedure in the environment of the trace expression. Each id is set!ed to a new procedure that traces procedure calls and returns by printing the arguments and results of the call via current-trace-notify. If multiple values are returned, each value is displayed starting on a separate line.

When traced procedures invoke each other, nested invocations are shown by printing a nesting prefix. If the nesting depth grows to ten and beyond, a number is printed to show the actual nesting depth.

The trace form can be used on an identifier that is already traced. In this case, assuming that the variable’s value has not been changed, trace has no effect. If the variable has been changed to a different procedure, then a new trace is installed.

Tracing respects tail calls to preserve loops, but its effect may be visible through continuation marks. When a call to a traced procedure occurs in tail position with respect to a previous traced call, then the tailness of the call is preserved (and the result of the call is not printed for the tail call, because the same result will be printed for an enclosing call). Otherwise, however, the body of a traced procedure is not evaluated in tail position with respect to a call to the procedure.

The result of a trace expression is #<void>.

Examples:

> > (define (f x) (if (zero? x) 0 (add1 (f (sub1 x)))))
> > (trace f)
> > (f 10)
> >(f 10)
> > (f 9)
> > >(f 8)
> > > (f 7)
> > > >(f 6)
> > > > (f 5)
> > > > >(f 4)
> > > > > (f 3)
> > > > > >(f 2)
> > > > > > (f 1)
> > > > >[10] (f 0)
> < < < <[10] 0
> < < < < < 1
> < < < < <2
> < < < < 3
> < < < <4
> < < < 5
> < < <6
> < < 7
> < <8
> < 9
> <10
> 10

trace can also be used to debug syntax transformers. This is verbose to do directly with trace; refer to trace-define-syntax for a simpler way to do this.

Examples:

> > (require (for-syntax racket/trace))
> > (begin-for-syntax
> (define let
> (syntax-rules ()
> [(_ ([x v]) e) ((lambda (x) e) v)]))
> (trace let))
> > (define-syntax let let)
> > (let ([x 120]) x)
> >(_let #<syntax:eval:9:0 (let ((x 120)) x)>)
> <#<syntax:eval:9:0 ((lambda (x) x) 120)>
> 120

When tracing syntax transformers, it may be helpful to modify current-trace-print-args and current-trace-print-results to make the trace output more readable; see current-trace-print-args for an extended example.

> syntax (trace-define id expr)
> (trace-define (head args) body ...+)

The trace-define form is short-hand for first defining a function then tracing it. This form supports all define forms.

Examples:

> > (trace-define (f x) (if (zero? x) 0 (add1 (f (sub1 x)))))
> > (f 5)
> >(f 5)
> > (f 4)
> > >(f 3)
> > > (f 2)
> > > >(f 1)
> > > > (f 0)
> < < < 0
> < < <1
> < < 2
> < <3
> < 4
> <5
> 5

Examples:

> > (trace-define ((+n n) x) (+ n x))
> > (map (+n 5) (list 1 3 4))
> >(+n 5)
> <#<procedure>
> '(6 8 9)

> syntax (trace-define-syntax id expr)
> (trace-define-syntax (head args) body ...+)

The trace-define-syntax form is short-hand for first defining a syntax transformer then tracing it. This form supports all define-syntax forms.

For example:

Examples:

> > (trace-define-syntax fact
> (syntax-rules ()
> [(_ x) 120]))
> > (fact 5)
> >(fact #<syntax:eval:15:0 (fact 5)>)
> <#<syntax:eval:15:0 120>
> 120

By default, trace prints out syntax objects when tracing a syntax transformer. This can result in too much output if you do not need to see, e.g., source information. To get more readable output by printing syntax objects as datums, we can modify the current-trace-print-args and current-trace-print-results. See current-trace-print-args for an example.

> syntax (trace-lambda [#:name id] args expr)

The trace-lambda form enables tracing an anonymous function. This form will attempt to infer a name using syntax-local-infer-name, or a name can be specified using the optional #:name argument. A syntax error is raised if a name is not given and a name cannot be inferred.

Example:

> > ((trace-lambda (x) 120) 5)
> >(eval:16:0 5)
> <120
> 120

> syntax (trace-let id ([arg expr] ...+) body ...+)

The trace-let form enables tracing a named let.

Example:

> > (trace-let f ([x 5])
> (if (zero? x)
> 1
> (* x (f (sub1 x)))))
> >(f 5)
> > (f 4)
> > >(f 3)
> > > (f 2)
> > > >(f 1)
> > > > (f 0)
> < < < 1
> < < <1
> < < 2
> < <6
> < 24
> <120
> 120

> syntax (untrace id ...)

Undoes the effects of the trace form for each id, set!ing each id back to the untraced procedure, but only if the current value of id is a traced procedure. If the current value of a id is not a procedure installed by trace, then the variable is not changed.

The result of an untrace expression is #<void>.

> parameter (current-trace-notify) → (string? . -> . any)
> (current-trace-notify proc) → void?
> proc : (string? . -> . any)

A parameter that determines the way that trace output is displayed. The string given to proc is a trace; it does not end with a newline, but it may contain internal newlines. Each call or result is converted into a string using pretty-print. The parameter’s default value prints the given string followed by a newline to (current-output-port).

> procedure (trace-call id proc #:<kw> kw-arg ...) → any/c
> id : symbol?
> proc : procedure?
> kw-arg : any/c

Calls proc with the arguments supplied in args, and possibly using keyword arguments. Also prints out the trace information during the call, as described above in the docs for trace, using id as the name of proc.

> > parameter
> > (current-trace-print-args) |  | → |  |
> > (-> symbol?
> > list?
> > (listof keyword?)
> > list?
> > number?
> > void?)
> (current-trace-print-args trace-print-args) → void?
> | trace-print-args |  | : |  |
> (-> symbol?
> list?
> (listof keyword?)
> list?
> number?
> void?)

The value of this parameter is invoked to print out the arguments of a traced call. It receives the name of the function, the function’s ordinary arguments, its keywords, the values of the keywords, and a number indicating the depth of the call.

Modifying this and current-trace-print-results is useful to to get more readable or additional output when tracing syntax transformers. For example, we can use debug-scopes to add scopes information to the trace, (see debug-scopes for an example), or remove source location information to just display the shape of the syntax object

In this example, we update the printers current-trace-print-args and current-trace-print-results by storing the current printers (ctpa and ctpr) to cast syntax objects to datum using syntax->datum and then pass the transformed arguments and results to the previous printer. When tracing, syntax arguments will be displayed without source location information, shortening the output.

Examples:

> > (require (for-syntax racket/trace))
> > (begin-for-syntax
> (current-trace-print-args
> (let ([ctpa (current-trace-print-args)])
> (lambda (s l kw l2 n)
> (ctpa s (map syntax->datum l) kw l2 n))))
> (current-trace-print-results
> (let ([ctpr (current-trace-print-results)])
> (lambda (s r n)
> (ctpr s (map syntax->datum r) n)))))
> > (trace-define-syntax fact
> (syntax-rules ()
> [(_ x) 120]))
> > (fact 5)
> >(fact '(fact 5))
> <120
> 120

We must take care when modifying these parameters, especially when the transformation makes assumptions about or changes the type of the argument/result of the traced identifier. This modification of current-trace-print-args and current-trace-print-results is an imperative update, and will affect all traced identifiers. This example assumes all arguments and results to all traced functions will be syntax objects, which is the case only if you are only tracing syntax transformers. If used as-is, the above code could result in type errors when tracing both functions and syntax transformers. It would be better to use syntax->datum only when the argument or result is actually a syntax object, for example, by defining maybe-syntax->datum as follows.

Examples:

> > (require (for-syntax racket/trace))
> > (begin-for-syntax
> (define (maybe-syntax->datum syn?)
> (if (syntax? syn?)
> (syntax->datum syn?)
> syn?))
> (current-trace-print-args
> (let ([ctpa (current-trace-print-args)])
> (lambda (s l kw l2 n)
> (ctpa s (map maybe-syntax->datum l) kw l2 n))))
> (current-trace-print-results
> (let ([ctpr (current-trace-print-results)])
> (lambda (s l n)
> (ctpr s (map maybe-syntax->datum l) n))))
> (trace-define (precompute-fact syn n) (datum->syntax syn (apply * (build-list n add1)))))
> > (trace-define (run-time-fact n) (apply * (build-list n add1)))
> > (require (for-syntax syntax/parse))
> > (trace-define-syntax (fact syn)
> (syntax-parse syn
> [(_ x:nat) (precompute-fact syn (syntax->datum #'x))]
> [(_ x) #'(run-time-fact x)]))
> > (fact 5)
> >(fact '(fact 5))
> >(precompute-fact '(fact 5) 5)
> <120
> 120
> > (fact (+ 2 3))
> >(fact '(fact (+ 2 3)))
> <'(run-time-fact (+ 2 3))
> >(run-time-fact 5)
> <120
> 120

> > parameter
> > (current-trace-print-results) |  | → |  |
> > (-> symbol?
> > list?
> > number?
> > any)
> (current-trace-print-results trace-print-results) → void?
> | trace-print-results |  | : |  |
> (-> symbol?
> list?
> number?
> any)

The value of this parameter is invoked to print out the results of a traced call. It receives the name of the function, the function’s results, and a number indicating the depth of the call.

> parameter (current-prefix-in) → string?
> (current-prefix-in prefix) → void?
> prefix : string?

This string is used by the default value of current-trace-print-args indicating that the current line is showing the a call to a traced function.

It defaults to ">".

> parameter (current-prefix-out) → string?
> (current-prefix-out prefix) → void?
> prefix : string?

This string is used by the default value of current-trace-print-results indicating that the current line is showing the result of a traced call.

It defaults to "<".

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