Add support for statement-level Stepping

[SougandhS]

This PR Introduces a new debug preference that allows the debugger to skip intermediate bytecode instructions when performing a Stepping operations

In multi-line statements (such as method calls with arguments spread across multiple lines), the debugger may normally suspend multiple times due to intermediate bytecode instructions like variable or constant loads.

With this option enabled, the debugger continues stepping over these intermediate instructions and suspends only at the next executable source statement. This results in a smoother and more intuitive stepping experience, avoiding unnecessary intermediate stops within a single logical statement..

Without enabled :

Before.mp4

With enabled :

After.mp4

Fixes : #854

What it does

How to test

Author checklist

• I have thoroughly tested my changes
• The change is following the coding conventions
• I have signed the Eclipse Contributor Agreement (ECA)

[eclipse-jdt-bot]

This pull request changes some projects for the first time in this development cycle.
Therefore the following files need a version increment:

org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

An additional commit containing all the necessary changes was pushed to the top of this PR's branch. To obtain these changes (for example if you want to push more changes) either fetch from your fork or apply the git patch.

Git patch

From 2123e7a7d25ee91c12114c77c5cfb811116bb48d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Eclipse JDT Bot <jdt-bot@eclipse.org>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2026 07:07:51 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Version bump(s) for 4.40 stream


diff --git a/org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF b/org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
index bef1c1bbb..a85defdfb 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
+++ b/org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Manifest-Version: 1.0
 Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
 Bundle-Name: %pluginName
 Bundle-SymbolicName: org.eclipse.jdt.debug; singleton:=true
-Bundle-Version: 3.25.100.qualifier
+Bundle-Version: 3.25.200.qualifier
 Bundle-ClassPath: jdimodel.jar
 Bundle-Activator: org.eclipse.jdt.internal.debug.core.JDIDebugPlugin
 Bundle-Vendor: %providerName
-- 
2.53.0

Further information are available in Common Build Issues - Missing version increments.

[SougandhS]

Hi @iloveeclipse, could you please check this PR when you get some time ?

[iloveeclipse]

In general, I find the idea great.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds a new debugger preference to perform “statement-level stepping”, aiming to avoid suspending on intermediate bytecode instructions within a single logical (often multi-line) source statement.

Changes:

• Adds a new IJavaDebugTarget flag (setStatementOnlyStepping / isStatementOnlyStepping) and wires it through the UI preference + options propagation.
• Updates stepping handling in JDIThread to optionally skip intermediate bytecode locations during stepping.
• Adds stepping tests and new test programs/snippets to validate multi-line stepping behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
org.eclipse.jdt.debug/model/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/core/model/JDIThread.java	Implements the “skip intermediate locations while stepping” behavior in step-event handling
org.eclipse.jdt.debug/model/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/core/model/JDIDebugTarget.java	Stores the statement-only stepping flag on the target
org.eclipse.jdt.debug/model/org/eclipse/jdt/debug/core/IJavaDebugTarget.java	Adds new API methods for statement-only stepping flag
org.eclipse.jdt.debug/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF	Bumps bundle version to 3.26.0
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/JavaDebugPreferencePage.java	Adds preference checkbox to UI and persists it
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/JavaDebugOptionsManager.java	Propagates preference value to active debug targets
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/JDIDebugUIPreferenceInitializer.java	Sets default value for the new preference
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/IJDIPreferencesConstants.java	Adds preference key constant
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/DebugUIMessages.properties	Adds UI label string
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/debug/ui/DebugUIMessages.java	Exposes new message key
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/tests/org/eclipse/jdt/debug/tests/AutomatedSuite.java	Registers the new test suite
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/tests/org/eclipse/jdt/debug/tests/AbstractDebugTest.java	Registers new snippet/test program names
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/tests/org/eclipse/jdt/debug/test/stepping/StatementSteppingTests.java	New stepping tests for statement-level stepping
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/testprograms/StatementStepNested.java	New test program for nested multi-line argument stepping
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/testprograms/StatementStepArgumnt.java	New test program for single multi-line argument stepping
org.eclipse.jdt.debug.tests/testprograms/StatementStep.java	New test program for many multi-line arguments stepping

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[iloveeclipse]

I haven't tested yet how it works, just did a formal code review.
There are two places where I miss explanation, and few places that should be improved.
For the later, I will push an extra commit on top in a moment, so you can easily see what I've changed.
For the unclear places, please try to make them clear :-)

[iloveeclipse]

Yet another question(s): should the new preference be added to the Debug -> Step Filtering page? The page is currently only for the "Enable step filtering", so probably that would be also a good idea to add the new condition to that group, make it dependent on "enable step filtering" feature and enable both by default? Why should we hide something that is useful?

[SougandhS]

Yet another question(s): should the new preference be added to the Debug -> Step Filtering page? The page is currently only for the "Enable step filtering", so probably that would be also a good idea to add the new condition to that group, make it dependent on "enable step filtering" feature and enable both by default? Why should we hide something that is useful?

Sure, will move this in step filtering section 👍

[SougandhS]

Yet another question(s): should the new preference be added to the Debug -> Step Filtering page? The page is currently only for the "Enable step filtering", so probably that would be also a good idea to add the new condition to that group, make it dependent on "enable step filtering" feature and enable both by default? Why should we hide something that is useful?

Updated as suggested

[iloveeclipse]

Looks good, just two small changes needed.

I will squash everything now & push, including the small fixes, and merge today.

[iloveeclipse]

@SougandhS :

1. Please provide N&N entry. Great feature.
2. Please check if the general stepping feature can be enabled by default (see Enable step filtering options by default #914). I fear some debugger tests will need changes, but I think it is worth to enable step filtering by default.

[SougandhS]

@SougandhS :

1. Please provide N&N entry. Great feature.
2. Please check if the general stepping feature can be enabled by default (see Enable step filtering options by default #914). I fear some debugger tests will need changes, but I think it is worth to enable step filtering by default.

Thank you @iloveeclipse for the review,
Will provide N&N and check #914 👍