Introduction

Delve is a powerful debugger for Go(Golang).

Installation

To install latest version of Delve, use the below command

go install github.com/go-delve/delve/cmd/dlv@latest

Make sure that $GOPATH/bin or your Go binary path is in your PATH environment variable.

Quick Usage

You can use delve in many ways, the one I prefer is as below

  • Start a Program with Delve

    You can start a Go program under Delve by running:

    dlv debug <program.go>

    This will compile and run the program in debug mode, allowing you to set breakpoints and interact with it.

  • Attach to a Running Process

    If your Go program is already running, you can attach Delve to it by using the process ID (PID):

    dlv attach <pid>

Basic Commands

Once delve is running, you can use the below commands to move around

  • Set breakpoints

    break <function_name>

    Or for specific lines

    break <filename>:<line_number>

  • Run program

    continue

  • Step through the code

    • Step into function: step
    • Step over function: next
    • Step out of current function: stepout

  • Inspect variables

    • Print variable: print <variable_name>
    • Display the value of a variable at a breakpoint.

  • List breakpoints

    breakpoints

  • Exit the debug mode

    quit