Attach to process

The Attach to process feature allows you to debug a project which you are developing in RubyMine, but that you are unable to launch directly from your IDE for some reason.

For Linux users, native SDK should be added to the list of available SDKs in the Ruby SDK and Gems page of the Settings/Preferences dialog. This way, native SDK will be detected by RubyMine and suggested for use for an external script. Note that native SDK is not supported for macOS for security reasons.

Prerequisites

Attach to process requires the following components to be installed on the development machine:

If you use Linux, install GDB.
If you use macOS, make sure that LLDB is installed. Note that LLDB requires the six Python module, which may be missing in your macOS installation.

Attach to a process

From the main menu, choose Run | Attach to Process or press Ctrl+Alt+F5.
From the list of available processes, select the desired process.
Simplify your search by typing the first letters of its name or PID.
If there are several debuggers that can be used for the selected process, you can choose among them in the popup menu.
Proceed with debugging the same way as you usually do it in RubyMine (set breakpoints, step through, pause and resume the process, evaluate expressions, and so on)
Note that in case the process you have attached to does not provide debug information, breakpoints will be unavailable and stepping will be performed in the disassembly view.
When finished, detach the process: select Run | Stop or click the Stop the process button of the Debug tool window.

Last modified: 11 June 2021