Why does quitting ipdb while inside a cmd.Cmd subclass function exit the function?

Question

I have a little cmd subclass:

class Foo(cmd.Cmd):
    def do_ipdb(self, *a, **kw):
        import ipdb; ipdb.set_trace()
        pass

Foo().cmdloop()

This works and lets me inside ipdb, but when exiting, either using 'q' or CTRL-D, the cmdloop also breaks (which is not desired)

I tried wrapping the ipdb with a try / except, but I don't get to the except part. How can I maintain the cmdloop after exiting form ipdb?

BTW, I saw that cmd2 already does what I'm trying to do (with its default python option), but I still wonder what is happening here in the old cmd

Answer 1

According to the ipdb documentation, ipdb exposes

same interface as the pdb module

The pdb docs for q(uit) state:

Quit from the debugger. The program being executed is aborted.

So when you press 'q', both the debugger and the running program exit.

You may want to use a different pdb command, such as c(ontinue):

Continue execution, only stop when a breakpoint is encountered.