diff --git a/src/calibre/manual/custom.py b/src/calibre/manual/custom.py
index 37da1b0dc2..38486cc67a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/manual/custom.py
+++ b/src/calibre/manual/custom.py
@@ -97,7 +97,12 @@ def generate_calibredb_help(preamble, info):
 
     lines, toc = [], []
     for cmd in COMMANDS:
-        parser = getattr(cli, cmd+'_option_parser')()
+        args = []
+        if cmd == 'catalog':
+            args = [['doc.xml', '-h']]
+        parser = getattr(cli, cmd+'_option_parser')(*args)
+        if cmd == 'catalog':
+            parser = parser[0]
         toc.append('  * :ref:`calibredb-%s`'%cmd)
         lines += ['.. _calibredb-'+cmd+':', '']
         lines += [cmd, '~'*20, '']
diff --git a/src/calibre/manual/develop.rst b/src/calibre/manual/develop.rst
index d28ee5662a..efab5a1cac 100644
--- a/src/calibre/manual/develop.rst
+++ b/src/calibre/manual/develop.rst
@@ -176,3 +176,32 @@ in your favorite editor and add the line::
 
 near the top of the file. Now run the command :command:`calibredb`. The very first line of output should be ``Hello, world!``.
 
+Debugging tips
+----------------
+
+Running calibre code in a python debugger is not easy, unless you install from source on linux. However, python is a
+dynamically typed language with excellent facilities for introspection. I wrote the core calibre code without once
+using a debugger. There are two main strategies to debug calibre code:
+
+Using an interactive python interpreter
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+You can insert the following two lines of code to start an interactive python session at that point::
+
+    from calibre import ipython
+    ipython(locals())
+
+When running from the command line, this will start an interactive python interpreter with access to all
+locally defined variables (variables in the local scope). The interactive prompt even has TAB completion
+for object properties and you can use the various python facilities for introspection, such as
+:function:`dir`, :function:`type`, :function:`repr`, etc.
+
+Using print statements
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This is my favorite way to debug. Simply insert print statements at points of interest and run your program in the
+terminal. For example, you can start the GUI from the terminal as::
+
+    calibre-debug -g
+
+