how to use "Select debug app" and "wait for debugger" new feature in jelly bean?

Question

"Select debug app" and "Wait for debugger" are new feature in Jelly Bean, does someone know how to use these new features?

Hyrup

Answer 1

I found the answer here: http://developer.android.com/tools/debugging/debugging-devtools.html

Lets you select the application to debug. You do not need to set this to attach a debugger, but setting this value has two effects:

• It will prevent Android from throwing an error if you pause on a breakpoint for a long time while debugging.
• It will enable you to select the Wait for Debugger option to pause application startup until your debugger attaches (described next).

Stroller

Answer 2

It is a mystery to me also, but I'll share my experience. I cannot see that these options change the phone's behavior. Regardless of the settings I choose, the Galaxy Nexus behaves like my older phones that do not have the settings.

"Waiting for debugger" is a dialog that I see whenever I start running an app from Eclipse. It stays up for a while, and then my app starts running. This has been the case since I started Android development, and it still works that way on my old and new devices, regardless of the setting.

If I click on "Select Debug App", it allows me to select an app from the already installed apps on my phone that allow debugging, which are the apps that I wrote myself.

On my Galaxy Nexus it does not matter whether I select "Nothing" or one of my debuggable apps, I can still debug any app from Eclipse. I cannot even see a difference in time it takes to load an app over the ADB connection.

Ribbonfish