Node Debugging

It's possible to debug a running Node process using a variety of debuggers (see the Node debugging docs for details).

You may also be interested in checking out how to use VS Code with FxA.

Debugging a Server

yarn start runs some of the services with the debugger enabled by default.

1. Start the whole server as usual (yarn && yarn start from top-level in the monorepo)
2. To see which debug port each service is listening on check .vscode/launch.json or the pm2.config.js file of the package you're interested in.
3. Connect to the process to debug it:
   • Using Google Chrome, go to chrome://inspect, then click the process to connect to DevTools.
     • You may need to add a new target in the "Configure..." menu with the correct debug port
   • VS Code requires setting up a .vscode/launch.json file - see the VS Code docs for details.

Default Debug Ports

If you're using yarn start, the following ports are used for --inspect:

Port	Service
9130	content-server
9140	admin-panel
9150	admin-server
9160	auth-server
9170	payments-server
9180	event-broker
9190	support-panel
9200	graphql-api

Debugging Tests

The Node debugger can also be attached to a running test process. Mozilla accounts uses a variety of test frameworks, so the steps vary by package.

tip

The --inspect argument is used in the examples below, but --inspect-brk can also be used to pause the process as soon as it starts.

Mocha tests (e.g. fxa-shared)

For Mocha, pass the --timeout 0 option, otherwise the test will fail if you step through it and exceed the default timeout (currently 2 seconds on fxa-shared):

node --inspect ./node_modules/.bin/mocha --timeout 0 path/to/file

In fxa-shared, this incantation works for some directories, but not yet others.

Jest tests (e.g. fxa-payments-server)

For Jest, pass the --runInBand argument so it doesn't fork off the test runner to a separate process that isn't available to the inspector:

node --inspect ./node_modules/.bin/jest --runInBand --config server/jest.config.js filematcher

Where filematcher is a regex that matches against test file paths. If you omit filematcher, Jest will run all tests (but you have to hit Enter a second time to trigger the test run).