4.2 Inspect

The function inspect is an interactive version of describe. It displays objects in a similar way to describe. Entering the inspector causes a new level of the top loop to be entered with a special prompt indicating that the inspector has been entered and showing the current inspector level.

In the modified top loop, if you enter a slot name, that slot is inspected and the current object is pushed onto an internal stack of previously inspected objects. The special variables $, $$ and $$$ are bound to the top three objects on the inspector stack.

The following keywords are treated specially as commands by the inspector.

Inspector commands
Command	Meaning
`:cv`	Display current values of control variables.
`:d`	Display current object.
`:dm`	Display more of current object.
`:dr`	Display rest of current object.
`:h`	Display help on inspector commands.
`:i` `m`	Recursively invoke a new inspector. `m` is an object to inspect.
`:m`	Change the inspection mode — see 4.3 Inspection modes.
`:q`	Quit current inspector.
`:s` `n` `v`	Sets slot `n` to value `v`.
`:sh`	Show inspector stack.
`:u` `int`	Undo last inspection. If you supply an optional integer argument, `int`, then the last `int` inspections are undone.
`:ud`	Undo last inspection and redisplay current object.

You can get brief help listing these commands by entering :? at the inspector prompt.

The control variables *inspect-print-level* and *inspect-print-length* are similar to *describe-print-level* and *describe-print-length* (see above).

:dm displays more slots of the current object. If the object has more than *describe-length* slots, then the first *describe-length* will be printed, followed by an ellipsis and then:

(:dm or :dr for more)

If you enter the command :dm at the prompt it displays the next *describe-length* slots, and if you enter :dr it displays all the remaining slots. This only works on the last inspected object, so if you recursively inspect a slot and come back, :dm does not do anything useful. Typing :d lets you view the object again.

:ud is equivalent to typing :u followed by :d.