Import pprint for every breakpoint()

Question

Every time I use breakpoint() in python I inevitably end up importing pprint (from pprint import pprint). Is there a way to automatically add pprint to the namespace whenever breakpoint() is reached?

Python 3.8.5

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Answer 1

Make a file like this, put it into an installable package if you want, or just drop it somewhere on the PYTHONPATH:

$ cat mybreakpoint.py 
import pdb

def pprint_breakpoint():
    import pprint
    pdb.set_trace()

Now you can use the env var PYTHONBREAKPOINT to customize the debugger scope like that:

$ PYTHONBREAKPOINT=mybreakpoint.pprint_breakpoint python3
Python 3.11.0b1 (main, May 18 2022, 12:50:35) [GCC 11.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> breakpoint()
--Return--
> .../mybreakpoint.py(5)pprint_breakpoint()->None
-> pdb.set_trace()
(Pdb) pprint.pprint({"k2":"v2", "k1":"v1"})
{'k1': 'v1', 'k2': 'v2'}

Personally, I always install IPython into my development environments, so that I can use PYTHONBREAKPOINT=IPython.embed and get a more full-featured REPL in breakpoints by default, including IPython's pretty printer.