Develop Reference

Get only last traceback without using raise from None?

I have a common situation in my projects, where I use custom Exceptions to wrap built in exception scenarios, like:
# meaningless here but in other situations its useful...
try:
5/0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
raise MyCustomException(msg=str(e))
along with a universal exception handler that looks like this:
#app.errorhandler(Exception) # this decorator is flask related - ignore it
def handle_error(error):
if isinstance(error, MyCustomException):
# some code
# I only want MyCustomException traceback
else:
# some other code
exc_stack = traceback.format_exc(limit=5)
The known issue here is that I get both exception tracebacks, whereas in if-case I want only the last one.
There are two solutions in this problem as far as I know.
First workaround (use from None):
try:
5/0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
raise MyCustomException(msg=str(e)) from None # python3
Second workaround (call the traceback before raising the second exception)
try:
5/0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
tracb = traceback.format_exc(limit=5)
raise MyCustomException(msg=str(e), tracb_msg=tracb)
No need to call traceback.format_exc() in exception handler, just use the tracb_msg passed to the instance. Obviously first workaround is simpler.
My Problem:
Both of these approaches re-appear (repeating code/trick) dozens of times inside the code, every time I raise MyCustomException. Has anyone come up with a trick to handle this once inside the handler function?

Use the __suppress_context__ attribute to disable context printing.
According to the docs, using raise MyCustomException(foo) from bar sets __cause__ to bar, and __context__ to the original exception (the implicitly chained exception).
An implicitly chained exception in __context__ is shown only if __cause__ is None and __suppress_context__ is false.
Here's an example:
# Declare an exception that never shows context.
class MyCustomException(Exception):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.__suppress_context__ = True
try:
1/0
except ZeroDivisionError as e:
raise MyCustomException(str(e))
Here's the output I get:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/don/workspace/scratch/scratch.py", line 12, in <module>
raise MyCustomException(str(e))
MyCustomException: division by zero
Here's the output if I set __suppress_context__ to False:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/don/workspace/scratch/scratch.py", line 10, in <module>
1/0
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/don/workspace/scratch/scratch.py", line 12, in <module>
raise MyCustomException(str(e))
MyCustomException: division by zero

Raise an exception from a higher level, a la warnings

In the module warnings (https://docs.python.org/3.5/library/warnings.html) there is the ability to raise a warning that appears to come from somewhere earlier in the stack:
warnings.warn('This is a test', stacklevel=2)
Is there an equivalent for raising errors? I know I can raise an error with an alternative traceback, but I can't create that traceback within the module since it needs to come from earlier. I imagine something like:
tb = magic_create_traceback_right_here()
raise ValueError('This is a test').with_traceback(tb.tb_next)
The reason is that I am developing a module that has a function module.check_raise that I want to raise an error that appears to originate from where the function is called. If I raise an error within the module.check_raise function, it appears to originate from within module.check_raise, which is undesired.
Also, I've tried tricks like raising a dummy exception, catching it, and passing the traceback along, but somehow the tb_next becomes None. I'm out of ideas.
Edit:
I would like the output of this minimal example (called tb2.py):
import check_raise
check_raise.raise_if_string_is_true('True')
to be only this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tb2.py", line 10, in <module>
check_raise.raise_if_string_is_true(string)
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.

I can't believe I am posting this
By doing this you are going against the zen.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
But if you insist here is your magical code.
check_raise.py
import sys
import traceback
def raise_if_string_is_true(string):
if string == 'true':
#the frame that called this one
f = sys._getframe().f_back
#the most USELESS error message ever
e = RuntimeError("An exception was raised.")
#the first line of an error message
print('Traceback (most recent call last):',file=sys.stderr)
#the stack information, from f and above
traceback.print_stack(f)
#the last line of the error
print(*traceback.format_exception_only(type(e),e),
file=sys.stderr, sep="",end="")
#exit the program
#if something catches this you will cause so much confusion
raise SystemExit(1)
# SystemExit is the only exception that doesn't trigger an error message by default.
This is pure python, does not interfere with sys.excepthook and even in a try block it is not caught with except Exception: although it is caught with except:
test.py
import check_raise
check_raise.raise_if_string_is_true("true")
print("this should never be printed")
will give you the (horribly uninformative and extremely forged) traceback message you desire.
Tadhgs-MacBook-Pro:Documents Tadhg$ python3 test.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 3, in <module>
check_raise.raise_if_string_is_true("true")
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.
Tadhgs-MacBook-Pro:Documents Tadhg$

If I understand correctly, you would like the output of this minimal example:
def check_raise(function):
try:
return function()
except Exception:
raise RuntimeError('An exception was raised.')
def function():
1/0
check_raise(function)
to be only this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tb2.py", line 10, in <module>
check_raise(function)
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.
In fact, it's a lot more output; there is exception chaining, which could be dealt with by handling the RuntimeError immediately, removing its __context__, and re-raising it, and there is another line of traceback for the RuntimeError itself:
File "tb2.py", line 5, in check_raise
raise RuntimeError('An exception was raised.')
As far as I can tell, it is not possible for pure Python code to substitute the traceback of an exception after it was raised; the interpreter has control of adding to it but it only exposes the current traceback whenever the exception is handled. There is no API (not even when using tracing functions) for passing your own traceback to the interpreter, and traceback objects are immutable (this is what's tackled by that Jinja hack involving C-level stuff).
So further assuming that you're interested in the shortened traceback not for further programmatic use but only for user-friendly output, your best bet will be an excepthook that controls how the traceback is printed to the console. For determining where to stop printing, a special local variable could be used (this is a bit more robust than limiting the traceback to its length minus 1 or such). This example requires Python 3.5 (for traceback.walk_tb):
import sys
import traceback
def check_raise(function):
__exclude_from_traceback_from_here__ = True
try:
return function()
except Exception:
raise RuntimeError('An exception was raised.')
def print_traceback(exc_type, exc_value, tb):
for i, (frame, lineno) in enumerate(traceback.walk_tb(tb)):
if '__exclude_from_traceback_from_here__' in frame.f_code.co_varnames:
limit = i
break
else:
limit = None
traceback.print_exception(
exc_type, exc_value, tb, limit=limit, chain=False)
sys.excepthook = print_traceback
def function():
1/0
check_raise(function)
This is the output now:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "tb2.py", line 26, in <module>
check_raise(function)
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.

EDIT: The previous version did not provide quotes or explanations.
I suggest referring to PEP 3134 which states in the Motivation:
Sometimes it can be useful for an exception handler to intentionally
re-raise an exception, either to provide extra information or to
translate an exception to another type. The __cause__ attribute
provides an explicit way to record the direct cause of an exception.
When an Exception is raised with a __cause__ attribute the traceback message takes the form of:
Traceback (most recent call last):
<CAUSE TRACEBACK>
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
<MAIN TRACEBACK>
To my understanding this is exactly what you are trying to accomplish; clearly indicate that the reason for the error is not your module but somewhere else. If you are instead trying to omit information to the traceback like your edit suggests then the rest of this answer won't do you any good.
Just a note on syntax:
The __cause__ attribute on exception objects is always initialized
to None. It is set by a new form of the 'raise' statement:
raise EXCEPTION from CAUSE
which is equivalent to:
exc = EXCEPTION
exc.__cause__ = CAUSE
raise exc
so the bare minimum example would be something like this:
def function():
int("fail")
def check_raise(function):
try:
function()
except Exception as original_error:
err = RuntimeError("An exception was raised.")
raise err from original_error
check_raise(function)
which gives an error message like this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/PATH/test.py", line 7, in check_raise
function()
File "/PATH/test.py", line 3, in function
int("fail")
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: 'fail'
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/PATH/test.py", line 12, in <module>
check_raise(function)
File "/PATH/test.py", line 10, in check_raise
raise err from original_error
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.
However the first line of the cause is the statement in the try block of check_raise:
File "/PATH/test.py", line 7, in check_raise
function()
so before raising err it may (or may not) be desirable to remove the outer most traceback frame from original_error:
except Exception as original_error:
err = RuntimeError("An exception was raised.")
original_error.__traceback__ = original_error.__traceback__.tb_next
raise err from original_error
This way the only line in the traceback that appears to come from check_raise is the very last raise statement which cannot be omitted with pure python code although depending on how informative the message is you can make it very clear that your module was not the cause of the problem:
err = RuntimeError("""{0.__qualname__} encountered an error during call to {1.__module__}.{1.__name__}
the traceback for the error is shown above.""".format(function,check_raise))
The advantage to raising exception like this is that the original Traceback message is not lost when the new error is raised, which means that a very complex series of exceptions can be raised and python will still display all the relevant information correctly:
def check_raise(function):
try:
function()
except Exception as original_error:
err = RuntimeError("""{0.__qualname__} encountered an error during call to {1.__module__}.{1.__name__}
the traceback for the error is shown above.""".format(function,check_raise))
original_error.__traceback__ = original_error.__traceback__.tb_next
raise err from original_error
def test_chain():
check_raise(test)
def test():
raise ValueError
check_raise(test_chain)
gives me the following error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 16, in test
raise ValueError
ValueError
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 13, in test_chain
check_raise(test)
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 10, in check_raise
raise err from original_error
RuntimeError: test encountered an error during call to __main__.check_raise
the traceback for the error is shown above.
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 18, in <module>
check_raise(test_chain)
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 10, in check_raise
raise err from original_error
RuntimeError: test_chain encountered an error during call to __main__.check_raise
the traceback for the error is shown above.
Yes it is long but it is significantly more informative then:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/Tadhg/Documents/test.py", line 18, in <module>
check_raise(test_chain)
RuntimeError: An exception was raised.
not to mention that the original error is still usable even if the program doesn't end:
import traceback
def check_raise(function):
...
def fail():
raise ValueError
try:
check_raise(fail)
except RuntimeError as e:
cause = e.__cause__
print("check_raise failed because of this error:")
traceback.print_exception(type(cause), cause, cause.__traceback__)
print("and the program continues...")

I understand 'Don't do this'. On the other hand, there may be some special use cases i believe. I'm generating own errors (just deleting some defined frames...) this way
def get_traceback_with_removed_frames_by_line_string(lines):
"""In traceback call stack, it is possible to remove particular level defined by some line content.
Args:
lines (list): Line in call stack that we want to hide.
Returns:
string: String traceback ready to be printed.
"""
exc = trcbck.TracebackException(*sys.exc_info())
for i in exc.stack[:]:
if i.line in lines:
exc.stack.remove(i)
return "".join(exc.format())
I return just string.
If there is concrete function that is raising, you can add it to ignored frames.
Though have in mind, that if you hide something, somebody may not understand why is something happening...
My use case was to hide only first level - decorator from my library that was decorating all user functions in framework, so error from user side was on level 1.

exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not NoneType

On executing below code I get below error if it fails to get firefox profile/webdriver for some reason:
exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not NoneType
I want to understand why this error is displayed in this case:
self.error = 0
self.profile, profileErrStatus = self.GetFireFoxProfile(path)
if self.profile:
self.driver, driverErrStatus = self.GetFireFoxWebDriver(self.profile)
if self.driver:
else:
print('Failed to get Firefox Webdriver:%s'%(str(sys.exc_info()[0])))
raise
else:
print('Failed to get Firefox Profile:%s'%(str(sys.exc_info()[0])))
raise

This is because you are using raise without providing an exception type or instance.
According to the documentation:
The sole argument to raise indicates the exception to be raised. This
must be either an exception instance or an exception class (a class
that derives from Exception).
Demo:
>>> raise
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: exceptions must be old-style classes or derived from BaseException, not NoneType
>>> raise ValueError('Failed to get Firefox Webdriver')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Failed to get Firefox Webdriver
Note that raise without arguments can be used inside an except block to re-raise an exception.
FYI, on python3, it would raise a RuntimeError instead:
>>> raise
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
RuntimeError: No active exception to reraise

Note that raise without an argument is allowed if you are in a catch block with an exception currently handled:
If you need to determine whether an exception was raised but don’t intend to handle it, a simpler form of the raise statement allows you to re-raise the exception:
>>> try:
... raise NameError('HiThere')
... except NameError:
... print 'An exception flew by!'
... raise
...
An exception flew by!
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 2, in ?
NameError: HiThere
(From Raising Exceptions in the documentation.)
Beware, though, that if a method called in the expect block clears the exception info, raise without an argument will result in the exceptions must be… exception again. So explicitly assigning the exception to a variable with except … as is safer:
try:
raise NameError('HiThere')
except NameError as e:
log_and_clear_exception_info('An exception flew by!')
raise e

Why is Exception(str()) throwing an exception?

In a CLI application that may or may not be run with a debug parameter, I am catching an exception and selectively rethrowing it:
try:
doSomething()
except Exception as e:
if debug==True:
raise Exception(str(e))
Interestingly, the raise Exception() code itself is throwing this:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./app.py", line 570, in getSomething
raise Exception(str(e))
Exception: expected string or buffer
Would not str(e) return a string? I could only imagine that perhaps it is returning None so I tried a general Exception (as seen in the code) hoping that it would never be None. Why might e not be castable to string?

I think you are misunderstanding the Exception message.
In your doSomething, an exception raised, the exception is expected string or buffer. Then you use that string to re-throw an exception. And you do not catch this exception. So, the interpreter stops and print the message.
>>> try:
... raise Exception('expected string or buffer')
... except Exception as e:
... raise Exception(str(e))
...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 4, in <module>
Exception: expected string or buffer
>>>

As a side note, if you want to re-throw an exception, a stand-alone raise statement will do it, which raises the last raised exception. This will give you the actual error as well, rather than just passing the message to Exception.
try:
doSomething()
except: # except by itself catches any exception
# better to except a specific error though
if debug: # use implicit truth check of `if`
raise # re-raise the caught exception
Also, note that everything can be converted to a string (unless you explicitly say it can't).

Re-raise Python exception and preserve stack trace

I'm trying to catch an exception in a thread and re-raise it in the main thread:
import threading
import sys
class FailingThread(threading.Thread):
def run(self):
try:
raise ValueError('x')
except ValueError:
self.exc_info = sys.exc_info()
failingThread = FailingThread()
failingThread.start()
failingThread.join()
print failingThread.exc_info
raise failingThread.exc_info[1]
This basically works and yields the following output:
(<type 'exceptions.ValueError'>, ValueError('x',), <traceback object at 0x1004cc320>)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 16, in <module>
raise failingThread.exc_info[1]
However, the source of the exception points to line 16, where the re-raise occurred. The original exception comes from line 7. How do I have to modify the main thread so that the output reads:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "test.py", line 7, in <module>

In Python 2 you need to use all three arguments to raise:
raise failingThread.exc_info[0], failingThread.exc_info[1], failingThread.exc_info[2]
passing the traceback object in as the third argument preserves the stack.
From help('raise'):
If a third object is present and not None, it must be a traceback
object (see section The standard type hierarchy), and it is
substituted instead of the current location as the place where the
exception occurred. If the third object is present and not a
traceback object or None, a TypeError exception is raised. The
three-expression form of raise is useful to re-raise an exception
transparently in an except clause, but raise with no expressions
should be preferred if the exception to be re-raised was the most
recently active exception in the current scope.
In this particular case you cannot use the no expression version.
For Python 3 (as per the comments):
raise failingThread.exc_info[1].with_traceback(failingThread.exc_info[2])
or you can simply chain the exceptions using raise ... from ... but that raises a chained exception with the original context attached in the cause attribute and that may or may not be what you want.

This code snippet works in both python 2 & 3:
1 try:
----> 2 raise KeyError('Default key error message')
3 except KeyError as e:
4 e.args = ('Custom message when get re-raised',) #The comma is not a typo, it's there to indicate that we're replacing the tuple that e.args pointing to with another tuple that contain the custom message.
5 raise