Line Out

See your AutoHotkey script run, line by line. Line Out is the live execution output enabled by /Trace in the Console fork. Each entry shows the source filename, line number, and statement as it begins executing.

ahk /Trace .\script.ahk

There is no extra library to include or logging call to add to each line. Use a compatible Console build; if you are starting fresh, follow Build & install and the PowerShell alias setup.

Try it in four lines

Download line-out.ahk, or save this as line-out.ahk:

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.1-alpha.30
value := 40
value += 2
Print(value)

Run it from the folder where you saved it:

ahk /Trace .\line-out.ahk

The trace goes to stderr:

[trace] line-out.ahk:2  value := 40
[trace] line-out.ahk:3  value += 2
[trace] line-out.ahk:4  Print(value)

The script's result, 42, goes to stdout. Both are visible in your terminal, and you can capture them separately.

Without an ahk alias, use the Console executable directly:

& 'C:\Tools\AutoHotkey64Console.exe' /Trace .\line-out.ahk

Replace the example executable path with your installation path.

Follow what actually runs

• Branches and loops: see the statements reached on this run, including repeated loop statements. Skipped branch bodies produce no entries.
• Hotkeys and timers: entries appear when their handlers execute. An idle script stays quiet.
• Included files: each entry identifies the source file and line.
• Readable statements: comments, blank lines, braces, and raw keyboard events are omitted. Multiline text is escaped onto one row; very long statements are truncated.

The statement text comes from the parsed script. A trace entry means execution started; it does not show current variable values or prove successful completion. Use Print for values and assertions for expected results.

Save the trace

ahk /Trace .\line-out.ahk 1>result.txt 2>trace.txt
$runExit = $LASTEXITCODE
Get-Content trace.txt
Get-Content result.txt
"Exit: $runExit"

Redirected trace output uses UTF-8. Diagnostics can also appear on stderr, so keep them when reviewing the trace.

Pause or turn it off

Use ListLines(false) inside your script to pause statement tracing and ListLines(true) to resume it. Launch without /Trace when you do not need execution output.

Extras for deeper inspection

Need structured statement events or line hit counts? See JSON trace & coverage. For the rest of the tools, explore the Console toolkit or the optional ClautoHotkey integration.