Using Livebook for Remote Debugging Elixir Applications

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Using Livebook for Remote Debugging Elixir Applications
In ElixirConf EU 2023, Luca Dei Zotti gave a presentation on remote debugging using Livebook, an emerging area of Elixir’s development ecosystem. Livebook helps developers interact with remote systems, leveraging the BEAM’s capabilities for maintaining system distributions and dynamically manipulating software. Dei Zotti demonstrated how Livebook could be used in conjunction with smartcells, OTP distribution, module reloading, and Elixir debugging tools like eprof and Flamegraphs to gain insights into running applications remotely without disrupting them. The talk emphasized understanding the basics of OTP distribution and how debugging tools can be employed effectively for maintaining live systems. The process involved connecting to a remote node, executing RPC calls to interact with the application, setting up a debugger, and identifying inefficiencies in a running application. Dei Zotti also demonstrated how module reloading could be utilized to fix a production problem in real-time. By loading binary code directly onto a remote node, a problematic function in an application was updated live, exemplifying the potential of remote debugging in critical situations. Overall, the presentation showcased the practical utility of Livebook for managing complex debugging tasks in distributed environments, providing a visual, repeatable, and collaborative debugging interface.

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