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JEP Add on debugger
This JEP describes the add-on debugger. Currently, the only way to debug add-ons is to launch the browser debugger, which shows all Javascript assets currently loaded in the browser. The add-on debugger will present the same interface, but will be limited only to scripts from a single add-on.
The first step is to enable the user to open up a separate debugger session that allows for debugging a single add-on. The chosen course of action involves some changes to the Remote Debugging Protocol, i.e. a new actor type will be implemented that enables debugging of globals pertaining to a particular add-on.
On the GUI side, this phase can reuse the code heavily from the existing browser debugger implementation, the only main change being the use of a different actor on the server side, as specified above. The debugger will work naturally as a separate process.
Additionally, the add-on debugger should provide support for debugging content scripts loaded in browser tabs. They can be displayed in the same debugger window.
The next step is to enable debugging add-ons as they are loaded, i.e. being able to set breakpoints on entry points of the add-on code. This can be achieved via implementing bug #882341 and then adding a way to explicitly reload add-ons.
Another convenient functionality is to be able to blackbox add-on SDK sources and frames in the debugger, and enable developers to focus on their own code. The generic support for blackboxing has already landed in the debugger, see bug #875034.
- Script globals may be GC-ed even though objects contained in it are still hanging around.
- Content scripts evaluate multiple times, currently the debugger doesn't recognize multiple instances of the same script loaded multiple times.
This JEP is not dependent on any other JEPs.
The add-on debugger does not expose any additional APIs, apart from the extensions to the RDP.