| name | verify |
| description | Verify a Bun runtime change by driving the debug binary end-to-end. |
Verify a Bun runtime change
Build and drive the debug binary directly — never bun test, never import-and-call.
Build
bun bd --version
Drive
For any JS-visible change, run the debug binary with -e and observe stdout:
bun bd -e '<repro>'
For worker/subprocess-shaped changes, spawn a subprocess (still -e) so worker teardown / event-loop-idle paths are exercised. Cross-check against node -e '<same repro>' for Node-compat changes.
Gotchas
- A
src/js/** edit can silently not reach the binary. bundle-modules
regenerates build/<cfg>/codegen/InternalModuleRegistryConstants.h, but the C++
TU that embeds it is not always recompiled, so the build succeeds while the
binary still runs the OLD JS. Gate on the binary, not the build: ask the binary
you just built — bun bd -e 'console.log(<Class>.toString().includes("<new-id>"))'
(or run ./build/<cfg>/bun directly). Plain bun is the system Bun on $PATH and
never has your edit, so it answers about the wrong binary.
If false, touch src/jsc/bindings/InternalModuleRegistry.cpp and rebuild.
- Prefix every
bun bd with PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH" — Homebrew's rust
formula shadows the pinned nightly, and bun bd dies with the option 'Z' is only accepted on the nightly compiler. bun bd re-runs cargo on every invocation, so
this is needed for follow-up runs too, not just the first build.
node:cluster changes can't be driven with -e: cluster.fork() re-execs argv[1], so workers need a real file on disk. Write a scratch script and run ./build/debug/bun-debug <file>.
- Only one
bun bd per worktree at a time — a second one blocks on the build lock and looks like a runtime hang. Build once, then drive ./build/debug/bun-debug directly under timeout.
BUN_DEBUG_QUIET_LOGS=1 suppresses debug-build log spam.
- Debug builds print
[cachefs]/[sys] lines to stdout; filter them before diffing
output against node.
- MessagePort's
.on/.off are added by requiring worker_threads — plain new MessageChannel() ports only have addEventListener until then.
- The debug+asan build is 10-100× slower than release; large-allocation stress tests can time out locally while passing in CI.