How to call help() from within pdb

Question

I'd like to have the interactivity of pdb, but also need to use python's help function to introspect objects/methods that I am not familiar with using.

How can I use python's help() from pdb?

everything I try gives me:

(Pdb) help(help)
*** No help on (help)
(Pdb) help(list())
*** No help on (list())

I don't think you can unfortunately (it drives me crazy too). I usually have another tab with the interpreter running so that I can call ``help()``. I really hope I'm wrong and there's a way to do this. — notorious.no, Apr 08 '15 at 19:30
Related: [python “help” function: printing docstrings](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7123660/python-help-function-printing-docstrings) — kojiro, Apr 08 '15 at 19:36

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 08 '15 at 19:31

12

If you want to evaluate an expression using PDB, you use p.

(Pdb) p help(list)

The debugger command docs are here: PDB Debugger Commands

answered Apr 08 '15 at 19:31

valdarin

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 21 '17 at 10:10

2

I had problems to get help from pdb too but apparently, inserting ! before the command does the job like:

(Pdb++) !help(help)

answered Mar 21 '17 at 10:10

MarcoMag

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Worked for me - Can you reference and authority that indicates this should be the cannonical answer? – ThorSummoner Mar 21 '17 at 15:38

How to call help() from within pdb

2 Answers2