python pdb not breaking in files properly?

Question

Hi Folks,

I wish I could provide a simple sample case that occurs using standard library code, but unfortunately it only happens when using one of our in-house libraries that in turn is built on top of sql alchemy.

Basically, the problem is that this break command:

(Pdb) print sqlalchemy.engine.base.__file__
/prod/eggs/SQLAlchemy-0.5.5-py2.5.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py

(Pdb) break /prod/eggs/SQLAlchemy-0.5.5-py2.5.egg/sqlalchemy/engine/base.py:946

Is just being totally ignored, it seems, by pdb. As in, even though I am positive the code is being hit (both because I can see log messages, and because I've used sys.settrace to check which lines in which files are being hit), pdb is just not breaking there.

I suspect that somehow the use of an egg is confusing pdb as to what files are being used (I can't reproduce the error if I use a non-egg'ed library, like pickle; there everything works fine).

It's a shot in the dark, but has anyone come across this before?

Thanks, /YGA

Answer 1

I wonder if somehow there's an old .pyc that can't be deleted because of permissions being messed up. Nuke all of the .pycs in your python-path, and see if that helps.

This blog post might be related to your trouble.

Answer 2

I don't suppose this is yet another problem caused by setuptools? I ask because I notice the ".egg" in that path...