Mention chrome://inspect when using node --inspect

[mavericken]

Version: v6.9.2
Platform: Windows 10 x64

When you do "node --inspect", it leads you to believe you should be debugging it through the URL it provides. I used it for a while, but it just buggy in general and doesn't work as well as a normal developer tools window. Luckily I discovered that I could do the same stuff but better with chrome://inspect. It would have saved me a lot of time if I found out about it sooner, so I feel that we should at least mention chrome://inspect in addition to the inspector.html URL.

C:\Windows\System32>node --inspect
Debugger listening on port 9229.
Warning: This is an experimental feature and could change at any time.
To start debugging, open the following URL in Chrome:
    chrome-devtools://devtools/remote/serve_file/@60cd6e859b9f557d2312f5bf532f6aec5f284980/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:9229/28625829-4e38-4d76-aa23-73cd6a7903e4
>

Maybe it should be more like this:

C:\Windows\System32>node --inspect
Debugger listening on port 9229.
Warning: This is an experimental feature and could change at any time.
To start debugging, open the following URL in Chrome:
    chrome-devtools://devtools/remote/serve_file/@60cd6e859b9f557d2312f5bf532f6aec5f284980/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:9229/28625829-4e38-4d76-aa23-73cd6a7903e4
You can also try chrome://inspect
>

[joyeecheung]

I can confirm this works with the latest Chrome stable and node v6.9.2 on my mac. But, it doesn't work with Chrome Canary, and v7.3.0 doesn't work either. Neither does the current Node master build work with Chrome stable/Canary.

Platform: Darwin Kernel Version 15.6.0

[cjihrig]

There was previous discussion that printing anything Chrome/DevTools specific isn't exactly fair to other debugging tools. This would be making that issue even worse IMO.

[joyeecheung]

Just did a little investigation and I think it's Chromium that breaks this feature(looks like it's trying to launch the wrong URL when you click inspect). I think Node has updated the protocol but Chromium's chrome://inspect doesn't. This bug on the chromium issue tracker looks related. Maybe should not prompt for chrome://inspect until it's fixed?

cc/ @eugeneo

[joyeecheung]

@cjihrig Ah, but maybe we could mention this in the docs?

[cjihrig]

I'd be fine with docs. Or even a wiki page (I know no one ever looks there) where any number of vendors can add instructions for their debugger.

[gibfahn]

Relevant discussion was at #8978 (and previously #7182)

[eugeneo]

1. chrome://inspect seems to be broken in Chrome 55 (I am not sure what happened) - but 56 seems to be ok. So it looks like chrome://inspect should not be surfaced at least for now...
2. Preferred way of connecting to Node.JS from Chrome DevTools will be from within the DevTools themselves (this blog entry - https://blog.hospodarets.com/nodejs-debugging-in-chrome-devtools - explains it). I still need to implement the UI on the devtools side to provide port customization.

[joyeecheung]

@gibfahn Thanks for the links. I think the problems in this issue can all be deferred to/solved by #8978?

[mavericken]

Maybe instead of mentioning specific services in the node console, it should instead provide a link to documentation describing all the ways to use it. I think the main problem here is that the chrome-devtools link gives off the impression that it is the only way to use it, when in fact better ways exist that a new user would not know about.

[joyeecheung]

@mavericken I think what you described is exactly what #8978 does, isn't it? :D

[mavericken]

Ah so it does. This issue is basically a duplicate then so I'll close.

[joshgav]

@mavericken would be great to get your feedback on nodejs/nodejs.org#1131