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Software Engineering vocabulary · Debugging and Troubleshooting

Debugger

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/diːˈbʌɡər/nounCommon term

In software engineering, debugger means: A tool that lets you pause a running program, go through it line by line and look at the values of variables to find out why it misbehaves.

In Turkish: hata ayıklayıcı, debugger

How it is used

Most IDEs have a built-in debugger. You attach a debugger to a process, run the code in the debugger and set breakpoints. Many developers start with print statements but switch to a debugger for harder bugs.

Example sentences

  1. Run it in the debugger and check what the variable holds before the crash.

  2. I attached the debugger to the running container and found the bad config value.

Common collocations

  • attach a debugger
  • run in the debugger
  • built-in debugger
  • debugger session
  • debugTo search for the cause of a problem in a program and remove it, often by running the code step by step and checking values.
  • breakpointA marker you put on a line of code so that the program pauses there while it runs, letting you inspect variables and step through the code.
  • step throughTo run code one line or instruction at a time in a debugger, checking what happens after each step.
  • IDEShort for integrated development environment: an application for writing code that brings together an editor, a debugger, search and other tools in one place.

More terms: Debugging and Troubleshooting

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