A new safe external debugger interface for CPython
summary
PEP 768 adds a safe, zero‑overhead external debugger interface to CPython 3.14 that lets a debugger drop a script into a remote_exec box and have the interpreter run it at interpreter safe points (eval loop checks) instead of attaching with ptrace. Implementation uses proc maps + binary offsets to locate PyRuntime, process_vm_readv to inspect memory, and a small metadata struct to find the pending-script path. Tools like pdb -P already work, performance impact is negligible, Windows support is harder but implemented, and opt‑outs include an env var, -X flag, or compile‑time disable.
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chapters (16)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:57Metaphor for debugging
- 3:25Native debugging
- 8:39How it works
- 11:22Evil Loop
- 13:23PyRuntime
- 14:51procmap
- 15:46debugoffsets
- 17:44code explanation
- 19:49Python disable remote debug
- 24:30Closing remarks
- 25:17Remote exec on Windows
- 26:32Recommendations
- 28:36Performance
- 30:02Extensions
- 31:04Exception
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