Inspecting a Running Python Process

# Used by pyrasite to inject code into a running process
sudo apt-get install gdb
 
# Used to allow pyrasite to inspect the internals of a running process
sudo apt-get install python-dbg
 
# Make sure that gdb can find debugging symbols for the virtualenv python
sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/debug/opt/edx
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/debug/{usr,opt/edx}/bin
 
# Enable ptrace
echo 0 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope
 

# Install the required python libraries
virtualenv memory
source memory/bin/activate
pip install Cython
pip install pyrasite meliae urwid

sudo memory/bin/pyrasite-memory-viewer <PID>

sudo -u www-data memory/bin/pyrasite <PID> dump_memory.py
less /tmp/pyrasite-*-objects.json

echo 1 | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/yama/ptrace_scope
sudo apt-get remove gdb python-dbg
rm -rf memory
sudo rm -rf /tmp/pyrasite-*-objects.json

sudo apt-get install libc-dbg
git clone http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/gdb-heap.git

> sudo PYTHONPATH=gdb-heap/ gdb attach <PID>
(gdb) python import gdbheap
(gdb) heap