README: explain why, show --help of brother_ql_create & more
This commit is contained in:
Philipp Klaus
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#### Debug
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If your printer has problems printing the instructions file, it may blink its LED (green or red) depending on the model. This can have many reasons, eg.:
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* The selected label doesn't match.
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* End of paper.
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* Unsupported opcode (some printers require a mode switching opcode, others fail if such an instruction is sent; some do support data compression, others don't)
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To debug this situation and find out which command could be the culprit, connect your printer via USB. (You don't get any status information via network).
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You can use the supplied tool `brother_ql_debug` to send your problematic instructions file to the printer. It will be split into single instructions sent one after the other.
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After every instruction, the printer will be given a chance to send a status response containing error information. Here is an example:
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philipp@lion ~> brother_ql_debug ./720x151_monochrome.bin /dev/usb/lp0
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INFO: CMD preamble FOUND. Instruction: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: CMD init FOUND. Instruction: 1B 40
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INFO: CMD status request FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 53
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Reply to status request' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD media/quality FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 7A CE 0A 3E 00 97 00 00 00 01 00
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INFO: CMD margins FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 64 23 00
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INFO: CMD raster FOUND. Instruction: 67 00 5A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FF FF FF 1F FF FF FF FF FF F0 00 00 00 00 00 0F FF FF 03 FF FF FF FF E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 07 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 06 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD print FOUND. Instruction: 1A
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Printing completed' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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Here, a command file was successfully printed. The last response should state the *Waiting to receive* phase.
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If you want to confirm the sending of every single command individually, you can add the `--interactive` argument to the command line call.
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If you're seeing any error there, open a new issue on Github containing the debugging output to get your device supported.
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@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ In more details, the following is possible with this package:
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* Create raster language files for the Brother label printers.
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These binary files contain the instructions for the printer and can be created from image files or programmatically in your own Python script.
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* Analyze files containing raster instructions.
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A tool that interprets all the instructions, writes out information about all of them, and creates PNG images of the printouts to be expected.
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A tool to dissect the binary files (interprets all the instructions, writes out information about all of them, and creates PNG images of the printouts to be expected).
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* Print raster instruction files with your Brother label printer via different backends:
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* pyusb (works cross-platform)
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* network (works cross-platform for WiFi/Ethernet-enabled printers)
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@@ -17,6 +17,17 @@ The following printers are claimed to be supported (✓ means verified by the au
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* QL-500 (✓), QL-550, QL-560, QL-570, QL-580N, QL-650TD, QL-700 (✓), QL-710W (✓), QL-720NW (✓), QL-1050, and QL-1060N.
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### Why
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The special feature is that no printer driver is required from Brother for this to work.
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This software bypasses the whole printing system including printer drivers and directly
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talks to your label printer instead. This means that even though Brother doesn't offer
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a driver for the Raspberry Pi (running Linux on ARM) you can print nicely using this software.
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Even if there are drivers for your operating system, many programs have difficulties to set
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the page sizes and margins for the labels correctly. If you want to print with high precision
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(which is important for barcodes for example), you rather want to have control about every
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single pixel to be printed. That's possible with this software package.
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### Installation
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pip install https://github.com/pklaus/brother_ql/archive/master.zip
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@@ -31,8 +42,9 @@ This package was mainly created for use with Python 3. The essential functionali
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#### Create
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You can create a new instruction file to be sent to the printer with
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the `brother_ql_create` tool:
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This is possibly the most important piece of software in this package:
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It allows you to create a new instruction file in the label printers' raster language:
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brother_ql_create --model QL-500 ./720x300_monochrome.png > 720x300_monochrome.bin
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@@ -40,21 +52,50 @@ If you want to find out about its options, just call the tool with `--help`:
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brother_ql_create --help
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Currently, the `brother_ql_create` tool is still lacking quite some important features like:
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giving:
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* setting the media to something different than 62mm endless labels
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* using the 600dpi mode
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usage: brother_ql_create [-h] [--model MODEL] [--label-size LABEL_SIZE]
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[--threshold THRESHOLD] [--no-cut]
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[--loglevel LOGLEVEL]
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image [outfile]
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positional arguments:
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image The image file to create a label from.
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outfile The file to write the instructions to. Defaults to
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stdout.
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optional arguments:
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-h, --help show this help message and exit
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--model MODEL, -m MODEL
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The printer model to use. Check available ones with
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`brother_ql_info --list-models`.
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--label-size LABEL_SIZE, -s LABEL_SIZE
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The label size (and kind) to use. Check available ones
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with `brother_ql_info --list-label-sizes`.
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--threshold THRESHOLD, -t THRESHOLD
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The threshold value (in percent) to discriminate
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between black and white pixels.
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--no-cut Don't cut the tape after printing the label.
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--loglevel LOGLEVEL Set to DEBUG for verbose debugging output to stderr.
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Please open an issue on Github if you want the tool to support more use cases.
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State what you want to be supported and what the command call could look like.
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The image argument should be a PNG/GIF/JPEG image file.
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For the best results, provide it in the right pixel dimensions (suiting the chosen --label-size).
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Some notes:
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Currently, the `brother_ql_create` tool doesn't support the 600x300 dpi mode supported by some printers.
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The output will always use the 300dpix300dpi mode with the *high quality preference* set.
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#### Analyse
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To analyse a binary file containing Brother QL Raster instructions and
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create an image of what would be printed:
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To analyse a binary file containing Brother QL Raster instructions:
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brother_ql_analyse 720x300_monochrome.bin --loglevel DEBUG
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The tool will dissect your file and print the opcodes to stdout.
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In addition, it creats images of what the printer's output would look like.
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They are saved to page0001.png etc. (yes, one .bin file can contain more than one "page").
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This tool also has the `--help` option.
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(This specific tool doesn't work on Python 2.)
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@@ -71,7 +112,7 @@ Or via network (if you have a LAN/WLAN enabled Brother QL):
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nc 192.168.0.23 9100 < my_label.bin
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You can also use the tool `brother_ql_print` to send the instructions to your printer.
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You can also use the tool `brother_ql_print` (Py3 only) to send the instructions to your printer:
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brother_ql_print 720x151_monochrome.bin /dev/usb/lp0
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# or
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@@ -79,36 +120,10 @@ You can also use the tool `brother_ql_print` to send the instructions to your pr
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# or (requires PyUSB: `pip install pyusb`)
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brother_ql_print 720x151_monochrome.bin usb://0x04f9:0x2015
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#### Debug
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If your printer has problems printing the instructions file, it may blink its LED (green or red) depending on the model. This can have many reasons, eg.:
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* The selected label doesn't match.
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* End of paper.
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* Unsupported opcode (some printers require a mode switching opcode, others fail if such an instruction is sent; some do support data compression, others don't)
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* Unsupported opcode (wrong --model when using `brother_ql_create`?)
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To debug this situation and find out which command could be the culprit, connect your printer via USB. (You don't get any status information via network).
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You can use the supplied tool `brother_ql_debug` to send your problematic instructions file to the printer. It will be split into single instructions sent one after the other.
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After every instruction, the printer will be given a chance to send a status response containing error information. Here is an example:
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philipp@lion ~> brother_ql_debug ./720x151_monochrome.bin /dev/usb/lp0
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INFO: CMD preamble FOUND. Instruction: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: CMD init FOUND. Instruction: 1B 40
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INFO: CMD status request FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 53
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Reply to status request' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD media/quality FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 7A CE 0A 3E 00 97 00 00 00 01 00
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INFO: CMD margins FOUND. Instruction: 1B 69 64 23 00
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INFO: CMD raster FOUND. Instruction: 67 00 5A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 FF FF FF 1F FF FF FF FF FF F0 00 00 00 00 00 0F FF FF 03 FF FF FF FF E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 [...] 00 07 FF FF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Response from the device: 80 20 42 30 4F 30 00 00 00 00 3E 0A 00 00 15 00 00 00 06 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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INFO: CMD print FOUND. Instruction: 1A
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Printing completed' (phase: Printing state), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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TIME 1.60
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INFO: Interpretation of the response: 'Phase change' (phase: Waiting to receive), 'Continuous length tape' 62x0 mm^2, errors: []
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Here, a command file was successfully printed. The last response should state the *Waiting to receive* phase.
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If you want to confirm the sending of every single command individually, you can add the `--interactive` argument to the command line call.
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If you're seeing any error there, open a new issue on Github containing the debugging output to get your device supported.
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More info on how to debug difficult situations to be found in the [DEBUG doc](DEBUG.md).
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