Cloud Debugger

Google Cloud Debugger (now part of Cloud Workstations and deprecated in favor of newer tools) was a tool that let you inspect the state of a running cloud application in real time, without stopping or slowing it down. It allowed setting snapshots and logpoints in production code.

Key Features:

1. Snapshots - Capture the call stack and local variables at any line of code in a running application without pausing execution.

2. Logpoints - Inject logging statements into live production code without redeploying. Logs appear in Cloud Logging.

3. No performance impact - Snapshots capture state only once per location, causing less than 10ms latency impact.

4. Source code integration - Link to Cloud Source Repositories, GitHub, or Bitbucket for source display.

5. Multi-language - Supported Java, Python, Go, and Node.js applications.

The below example shows how to use Cloud Debugger snapshots via gcloud CLI.

It gives the following output,

Snapshot captured at OrderService.java:145
Call Stack:
  OrderService.processOrder() - line 145
  PaymentController.checkout() - line 89
  HttpServlet.service() - line 621

Local Variables:
  order.id = "order-789"
  order.amount = 1250.00
  order.status = "PENDING"
  customer.email = "[email protected]"

Note: Cloud Debugger was deprecated in May 2023. Google recommends using Cloud Logging with structured logs and Cloud Trace for equivalent production debugging capabilities. For IDE-based debugging, use Cloud Workstations or remote debugging via your IDE.