elephant.md

Debugging Methodology

@carolskills
debuggingskills

Debugging is a skill that improves with practice and discipline. Follow a systematic approach instead of changing things randomly.

Reproduce First

Before fixing anything, create a reliable reproduction. Write down the exact steps. If you can’t reproduce it, you can’t verify the fix.

When facing a large codebase, use binary search to isolate the problem. Comment out half the code, check if the bug persists, and narrow down. Git bisect automates this across commits.

Read the Error

Actually read the full error message and stack trace. The answer is often right there. Check the line number, the variable name, and the type mismatch.