:mod:`!traceback` --- Print or retrieve a stack traceback
.. module:: traceback :synopsis: Print or retrieve a stack traceback.
Source code: :source:`Lib/traceback.py`
This module provides a standard interface to extract, format and print stack traces of Python programs. It is more flexible than the interpreter's default traceback display, and therefore makes it possible to configure certain aspects of the output. Finally, it contains a utility for capturing enough information about an exception to print it later, without the need to save a reference to the actual exception. Since exceptions can be the roots of large objects graph, this utility can significantly improve memory management.
.. index:: pair: object; traceback
The module uses :ref:`traceback objects <traceback-objects>` --- these are objects of type :class:`types.TracebackType`, which are assigned to the :attr:`~BaseException.__traceback__` field of :class:`BaseException` instances.
.. seealso::
Module :mod:`faulthandler`
Used to dump Python tracebacks explicitly, on a fault, after a timeout, or on a user signal.
Module :mod:`pdb`
Interactive source code debugger for Python programs.
The module's API can be divided into two parts:
- Module-level functions offering basic functionality, which are useful for interactive inspection of exceptions and tracebacks.
- :class:`TracebackException` class and its helper classes :class:`StackSummary` and :class:`FrameSummary`. These offer both more flexibility in the output generated and the ability to store the information necessary for later formatting without holding references to actual exception and traceback objects.
.. versionadded:: 3.13 Output is colorized by default and can be :ref:`controlled using environment variables <using-on-controlling-color>`.
.. function:: print_tb(tb, limit=None, file=None)
Print up to *limit* stack trace entries from
:ref:`traceback object <traceback-objects>` *tb* (starting
from the caller's frame) if *limit* is positive. Otherwise, print the last
``abs(limit)`` entries. If *limit* is omitted or ``None``, all entries are
printed. If *file* is omitted or ``None``, the output goes to
:data:`sys.stderr`; otherwise it should be an open
:term:`file <file object>` or :term:`file-like object` to
receive the output.
.. note::
The meaning of the *limit* parameter is different than the meaning
of :const:`sys.tracebacklimit`. A negative *limit* value corresponds to
a positive value of :const:`!sys.tracebacklimit`, whereas the behaviour of
a positive *limit* value cannot be achieved with
:const:`!sys.tracebacklimit`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
Added negative *limit* support.
.. function:: print_exception(exc, /[, value, tb], limit=None, \
file=None, chain=True)
Print exception information and stack trace entries from
:ref:`traceback object <traceback-objects>`
*tb* to *file*. This differs from :func:`print_tb` in the following
ways:
* if *tb* is not ``None``, it prints a header ``Traceback (most recent
call last):``
* it prints the exception type and *value* after the stack trace
.. index:: single: ^ (caret); marker
* if *type(value)* is :exc:`SyntaxError` and *value* has the appropriate
format, it prints the line where the syntax error occurred with a caret
indicating the approximate position of the error.
Since Python 3.10, instead of passing *value* and *tb*, an exception object
can be passed as the first argument. If *value* and *tb* are provided, the
first argument is ignored in order to provide backwards compatibility.
The optional *limit* argument has the same meaning as for :func:`print_tb`.
If *chain* is true (the default), then chained exceptions (the
:attr:`~BaseException.__cause__` or :attr:`~BaseException.__context__`
attributes of the exception) will be
printed as well, like the interpreter itself does when printing an unhandled
exception.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
The *etype* argument is ignored and inferred from the type of *value*.
.. versionchanged:: 3.10
The *etype* parameter has been renamed to *exc* and is now
positional-only.
.. function:: print_exc(limit=None, file=None, chain=True) This is a shorthand for ``print_exception(sys.exception(), limit=limit, file=file, chain=chain)``.
.. function:: print_last(limit=None, file=None, chain=True) This is a shorthand for ``print_exception(sys.last_exc, limit=limit, file=file, chain=chain)``. In general it will work only after an exception has reached an interactive prompt (see :data:`sys.last_exc`).
.. function:: print_stack(f=None, limit=None, file=None)
Print up to *limit* stack trace entries (starting from the invocation
point) if *limit* is positive. Otherwise, print the last ``abs(limit)``
entries. If *limit* is omitted or ``None``, all entries are printed.
The optional *f* argument can be used to specify an alternate
:ref:`stack frame <frame-objects>`
to start. The optional *file* argument has the same meaning as for
:func:`print_tb`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
Added negative *limit* support.
.. function:: extract_tb(tb, limit=None) Return a :class:`StackSummary` object representing a list of "pre-processed" stack trace entries extracted from the :ref:`traceback object <traceback-objects>` *tb*. It is useful for alternate formatting of stack traces. The optional *limit* argument has the same meaning as for :func:`print_tb`. A "pre-processed" stack trace entry is a :class:`FrameSummary` object containing attributes :attr:`~FrameSummary.filename`, :attr:`~FrameSummary.lineno`, :attr:`~FrameSummary.name`, and :attr:`~FrameSummary.line` representing the information that is usually printed for a stack trace.
.. function:: extract_stack(f=None, limit=None) Extract the raw traceback from the current :ref:`stack frame <frame-objects>`. The return value has the same format as for :func:`extract_tb`. The optional *f* and *limit* arguments have the same meaning as for :func:`print_stack`.
.. function:: print_list(extracted_list, file=None) Print the list of tuples as returned by :func:`extract_tb` or :func:`extract_stack` as a formatted stack trace to the given file. If *file* is ``None``, the output is written to :data:`sys.stderr`.
.. function:: format_list(extracted_list) Given a list of tuples or :class:`FrameSummary` objects as returned by :func:`extract_tb` or :func:`extract_stack`, return a list of strings ready for printing. Each string in the resulting list corresponds to the item with the same index in the argument list. Each string ends in a newline; the strings may contain internal newlines as well, for those items whose source text line is not ``None``.
.. function:: format_exception_only(exc, /[, value], *, show_group=False)
Format the exception part of a traceback using an exception value such as
given by :data:`sys.last_value`. The return value is a list of strings, each
ending in a newline. The list contains the exception's message, which is
normally a single string; however, for :exc:`SyntaxError` exceptions, it
contains several lines that (when printed) display detailed information
about where the syntax error occurred. Following the message, the list
contains the exception's :attr:`notes <BaseException.__notes__>`.
Since Python 3.10, instead of passing *value*, an exception object
can be passed as the first argument. If *value* is provided, the first
argument is ignored in order to provide backwards compatibility.
When *show_group* is ``True``, and the exception is an instance of
:exc:`BaseExceptionGroup`, the nested exceptions are included as
well, recursively, with indentation relative to their nesting depth.
.. versionchanged:: 3.10
The *etype* parameter has been renamed to *exc* and is now
positional-only.
.. versionchanged:: 3.11
The returned list now includes any
:attr:`notes <BaseException.__notes__>` attached to the exception.
.. versionchanged:: 3.13
*show_group* parameter was added.
.. function:: format_exception(exc, /[, value, tb], limit=None, chain=True)
Format a stack trace and the exception information. The arguments have the
same meaning as the corresponding arguments to :func:`print_exception`. The
return value is a list of strings, each ending in a newline and some
containing internal newlines. When these lines are concatenated and printed,
exactly the same text is printed as does :func:`print_exception`.
.. versionchanged:: 3.5
The *etype* argument is ignored and inferred from the type of *value*.
.. versionchanged:: 3.10
This function's behavior and signature were modified to match
:func:`print_exception`.
.. function:: format_exc(limit=None, chain=True) This is like ``print_exc(limit)`` but returns a string instead of printing to a file.
.. function:: format_tb(tb, limit=None) A shorthand for ``format_list(extract_tb(tb, limit))``.
.. function:: format_stack(f=None, limit=None) A shorthand for ``format_list(extract_stack(f, limit))``.
.. function:: clear_frames(tb) Clears the local variables of all the stack frames in a :ref:`traceback <traceback-objects>` *tb* by calling the :meth:`~frame.clear` method of each :ref:`frame object <frame-objects>`. .. versionadded:: 3.4
.. function:: walk_stack(f)
Walk a stack following :attr:`f.f_back <frame.f_back>` from the given frame,
yielding the frame
and line number for each frame. If *f* is ``None``, the current stack is
used. This helper is used with :meth:`StackSummary.extract`.
.. versionadded:: 3.5
.. versionchanged:: 3.14
This function previously returned a generator that would walk the stack
when first iterated over. The generator returned now is the state of the
stack when ``walk_stack`` is called.
.. function:: walk_tb(tb) Walk a traceback following :attr:`~traceback.tb_next` yielding the frame and line number for each frame. This helper is used with :meth:`StackSummary.extract`. .. versionadded:: 3.5
:class:`!TracebackException` Objects
.. versionadded:: 3.5
:class:`!TracebackException` objects are created from actual exceptions to capture data for later printing. They offer a more lightweight method of storing this information by avoiding holding references to :ref:`traceback<traceback-objects>` and :ref:`frame<frame-objects>` objects. In addition, they expose more options to configure the output compared to the module-level functions described above.
:class:`!StackSummary` Objects
.. versionadded:: 3.5
:class:`!StackSummary` objects represent a call stack ready for formatting.
.. classmethod:: extract(frame_gen, *, limit=None, lookup_lines=True, capture_locals=False)
Construct a :class:`!StackSummary` object from a frame generator (such as
is returned by :func:`~traceback.walk_stack` or
:func:`~traceback.walk_tb`).
If *limit* is supplied, only this many frames are taken from *frame_gen*.
If *lookup_lines* is ``False``, the returned :class:`FrameSummary`
objects will not have read their lines in yet, making the cost of
creating the :class:`!StackSummary` cheaper (which may be valuable if it
may not actually get formatted). If *capture_locals* is ``True`` the
local variables in each :class:`!FrameSummary` are captured as object
representations.
.. versionchanged:: 3.12
Exceptions raised from :func:`repr` on a local variable (when
*capture_locals* is ``True``) are no longer propagated to the caller.
.. classmethod:: from_list(a_list) Construct a :class:`!StackSummary` object from a supplied list of :class:`FrameSummary` objects or old-style list of tuples. Each tuple should be a 4-tuple with *filename*, *lineno*, *name*, *line* as the elements.
.. method:: format()
Returns a list of strings ready for printing. Each string in the
resulting list corresponds to a single :ref:`frame <frame-objects>` from
the stack.
Each string ends in a newline; the strings may contain internal
newlines as well, for those items with source text lines.
For long sequences of the same frame and line, the first few
repetitions are shown, followed by a summary line stating the exact
number of further repetitions.
.. versionchanged:: 3.6
Long sequences of repeated frames are now abbreviated.
.. method:: format_frame_summary(frame_summary) Returns a string for printing one of the :ref:`frames <frame-objects>` involved in the stack. This method is called for each :class:`FrameSummary` object to be printed by :meth:`StackSummary.format`. If it returns ``None``, the frame is omitted from the output. .. versionadded:: 3.11
:class:`!FrameSummary` Objects
.. versionadded:: 3.5
A :class:`!FrameSummary` object represents a single :ref:`frame <frame-objects>` in a :ref:`traceback <traceback-objects>`.
This simple example implements a basic read-eval-print loop, similar to (but less useful than) the standard Python interactive interpreter loop. For a more complete implementation of the interpreter loop, refer to the :mod:`code` module.
import sys, traceback
def run_user_code(envdir):
source = input(">>> ")
try:
exec(source, envdir)
except Exception:
print("Exception in user code:")
print("-"*60)
traceback.print_exc(file=sys.stdout)
print("-"*60)
envdir = {}
while True:
run_user_code(envdir)
The following example demonstrates the different ways to print and format the exception and traceback:
.. testcode::
import sys, traceback
def lumberjack():
bright_side_of_life()
def bright_side_of_life():
return tuple()[0]
try:
lumberjack()
except IndexError as exc:
print("*** print_tb:")
traceback.print_tb(exc.__traceback__, limit=1, file=sys.stdout)
print("*** print_exception:")
traceback.print_exception(exc, limit=2, file=sys.stdout)
print("*** print_exc:")
traceback.print_exc(limit=2, file=sys.stdout)
print("*** format_exc, first and last line:")
formatted_lines = traceback.format_exc().splitlines()
print(formatted_lines[0])
print(formatted_lines[-1])
print("*** format_exception:")
print(repr(traceback.format_exception(exc)))
print("*** extract_tb:")
print(repr(traceback.extract_tb(exc.__traceback__)))
print("*** format_tb:")
print(repr(traceback.format_tb(exc.__traceback__)))
print("*** tb_lineno:", exc.__traceback__.tb_lineno)
The output for the example would look similar to this:
.. testoutput::
:options: +NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
*** print_tb:
File "<doctest...>", line 10, in <module>
lumberjack()
~~~~~~~~~~^^
*** print_exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<doctest...>", line 10, in <module>
lumberjack()
~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<doctest...>", line 4, in lumberjack
bright_side_of_life()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
IndexError: tuple index out of range
*** print_exc:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<doctest...>", line 10, in <module>
lumberjack()
~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<doctest...>", line 4, in lumberjack
bright_side_of_life()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
IndexError: tuple index out of range
*** format_exc, first and last line:
Traceback (most recent call last):
IndexError: tuple index out of range
*** format_exception:
['Traceback (most recent call last):\n',
' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 10, in <module>\n lumberjack()\n ~~~~~~~~~~^^\n',
' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 4, in lumberjack\n bright_side_of_life()\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^\n',
' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 7, in bright_side_of_life\n return tuple()[0]\n ~~~~~~~^^^\n',
'IndexError: tuple index out of range\n']
*** extract_tb:
[<FrameSummary file <doctest...>, line 10 in <module>>,
<FrameSummary file <doctest...>, line 4 in lumberjack>,
<FrameSummary file <doctest...>, line 7 in bright_side_of_life>]
*** format_tb:
[' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 10, in <module>\n lumberjack()\n ~~~~~~~~~~^^\n',
' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 4, in lumberjack\n bright_side_of_life()\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^\n',
' File "<doctest default[0]>", line 7, in bright_side_of_life\n return tuple()[0]\n ~~~~~~~^^^\n']
*** tb_lineno: 10
The following example shows the different ways to print and format the stack:
>>> import traceback
>>> def another_function():
... lumberstack()
...
>>> def lumberstack():
... traceback.print_stack()
... print(repr(traceback.extract_stack()))
... print(repr(traceback.format_stack()))
...
>>> another_function()
File "<doctest>", line 10, in <module>
another_function()
File "<doctest>", line 3, in another_function
lumberstack()
File "<doctest>", line 6, in lumberstack
traceback.print_stack()
[('<doctest>', 10, '<module>', 'another_function()'),
('<doctest>', 3, 'another_function', 'lumberstack()'),
('<doctest>', 7, 'lumberstack', 'print(repr(traceback.extract_stack()))')]
[' File "<doctest>", line 10, in <module>\n another_function()\n',
' File "<doctest>", line 3, in another_function\n lumberstack()\n',
' File "<doctest>", line 8, in lumberstack\n print(repr(traceback.format_stack()))\n']
This last example demonstrates the final few formatting functions:
>>> import traceback
>>> traceback.format_list([('spam.py', 3, '<module>', 'spam.eggs()'),
... ('eggs.py', 42, 'eggs', 'return "bacon"')])
[' File "spam.py", line 3, in <module>\n spam.eggs()\n',
' File "eggs.py", line 42, in eggs\n return "bacon"\n']
>>> an_error = IndexError('tuple index out of range')
>>> traceback.format_exception_only(an_error)
['IndexError: tuple index out of range\n']Examples of Using :class:`TracebackException`
With the helper class, we have more options:
>>> import sys
>>> from traceback import TracebackException
>>>
>>> def lumberjack():
... bright_side_of_life()
...
>>> def bright_side_of_life():
... t = "bright", "side", "of", "life"
... return t[5]
...
>>> try:
... lumberjack()
... except IndexError as e:
... exc = e
...
>>> try:
... try:
... lumberjack()
... except:
... 1/0
... except Exception as e:
... chained_exc = e
...
>>> # limit works as with the module-level functions
>>> TracebackException.from_exception(exc, limit=-2).print()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<python-input-1>", line 6, in lumberjack
bright_side_of_life()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<python-input-1>", line 10, in bright_side_of_life
return t[5]
~^^^
IndexError: tuple index out of range
>>> # capture_locals adds local variables in frames
>>> TracebackException.from_exception(exc, limit=-2, capture_locals=True).print()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<python-input-1>", line 6, in lumberjack
bright_side_of_life()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<python-input-1>", line 10, in bright_side_of_life
return t[5]
~^^^
t = ("bright", "side", "of", "life")
IndexError: tuple index out of range
>>> # The *chain* kwarg to print() controls whether chained
>>> # exceptions are displayed
>>> TracebackException.from_exception(chained_exc).print()
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<python-input-19>", line 4, in <module>
lumberjack()
~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<python-input-8>", line 7, in lumberjack
bright_side_of_life()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "<python-input-8>", line 11, in bright_side_of_life
return t[5]
~^^^
IndexError: tuple index out of range
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<python-input-19>", line 6, in <module>
1/0
~^~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
>>> TracebackException.from_exception(chained_exc).print(chain=False)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<python-input-19>", line 6, in <module>
1/0
~^~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero