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Pause script execution when the DOM changes
If you want to know what JavaScript code removes, adds, or modifies a DOM element in the page, you can use DOM breakpoints in DevTools. You can choose to break on:
- Subtree modification: this pauses execution when any element in the subtree of the selected element is modified (added, removed, or changed attribute).
- Attribute modification: this pauses execution when an attribute of the selected element is modified.
- Node removal: this pauses execution when the selected node is removed from the DOM tree.
This is useful if you don't know the codebase you are debugging for example.
To add a DOM breakpoint:
- Navigate to the Inspector/Elements panel.
- Find the node which you want to add the breakpoint on.
- Open the contextual menu (right-click).
- Open the Break on sub menu and choose the type of breakpoint you want to set.
Once the requested DOM modification occurs, the JavaScript execution will pause and DevTools will navigate to the Sources/Debugger panel, showing the right line of code where execution is paused.
