`traceback` — Print or retrieve a stack traceback¶

Source code: Lib/traceback.py

This module provides a standard interface to extract, format and print stack traces of Python programs. It exactly mimics the behavior of the Python interpreter when it prints a stack trace. This is useful when you want to print stack traces under program control, such as in a “wrapper” around the interpreter.

The module uses traceback objects — these are objects of type types.TracebackType, which are assigned to the __traceback__ field of BaseException instances.

`TracebackException` Objects¶

New in version 3.5.

TracebackException objects are created from actual exceptions to capture data for later printing in a lightweight fashion.

class traceback.TracebackException(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback, *, limit=None, lookup_lines=True, capture_locals=False, compact=False, max_group_width=15, max_group_depth=10)¶

Capture an exception for later rendering. limit, lookup_lines and capture_locals are as for the StackSummary class.

If compact is true, only data that is required by TracebackException’s format method is saved in the class attributes. In particular, the __context__ field is calculated only if __cause__ is None and __suppress_context__ is false.

Note that when locals are captured, they are also shown in the traceback.

max_group_width and max_group_depth control the formatting of exception groups (see BaseExceptionGroup). The depth refers to the nesting level of the group, and the width refers to the size of a single exception group’s exceptions array. The formatted output is truncated when either limit is exceeded.

Changed in version 3.10: Added the compact parameter.

Changed in version 3.11: Added the max_group_width and max_group_depth parameters.

__cause__¶: A TracebackException of the original __cause__.

__context__¶: A TracebackException of the original __context__.

exceptions¶: If self represents an ExceptionGroup, this field holds a list of TracebackException instances representing the nested exceptions. Otherwise it is None.

New in version 3.11.

__suppress_context__¶: The __suppress_context__ value from the original exception.

__notes__¶: The __notes__ value from the original exception, or None if the exception does not have any notes. If it is not None is it formatted in the traceback after the exception string.

New in version 3.11.

stack¶: A StackSummary representing the traceback.

exc_type¶: The class of the original traceback.

filename¶: For syntax errors - the file name where the error occurred.

lineno¶: For syntax errors - the line number where the error occurred.

end_lineno¶: For syntax errors - the end line number where the error occurred. Can be None if not present.

New in version 3.10.

text¶: For syntax errors - the text where the error occurred.

offset¶: For syntax errors - the offset into the text where the error occurred.

end_offset¶: For syntax errors - the end offset into the text where the error occurred. Can be None if not present.

New in version 3.10.

msg¶: For syntax errors - the compiler error message.

classmethod from_exception(exc, *, limit=None, lookup_lines=True, capture_locals=False)¶

Capture an exception for later rendering. limit, lookup_lines and capture_locals are as for the StackSummary class.

Note that when locals are captured, they are also shown in the traceback.

print(*, file=None, chain=True)¶: Print to file (default sys.stderr) the exception information returned by format().

New in version 3.11.

format(*, chain=True)¶

Format the exception.

If chain is not True, __cause__ and __context__ will not be formatted.

The return value is a generator of strings, each ending in a newline and some containing internal newlines. print_exception() is a wrapper around this method which just prints the lines to a file.

format_exception_only()¶

Format the exception part of the traceback.

The return value is a generator of strings, each ending in a newline.

The generator emits the exception’s message followed by its notes (if it has any). The exception message is normally a single string; however, for SyntaxError exceptions, it consists of several lines that (when printed) display detailed information about where the syntax error occurred.

Changed in version 3.11: The exception’s notes are now included in the output.

`StackSummary` Objects¶

New in version 3.5.

StackSummary objects represent a call stack ready for formatting.

class traceback.StackSummary¶

classmethod extract(frame_gen, *, limit=None, lookup_lines=True, capture_locals=False)¶

Construct a StackSummary object from a frame generator (such as is returned by walk_stack() or walk_tb()).

If limit is supplied, only this many frames are taken from frame_gen. If lookup_lines is False, the returned FrameSummary objects will not have read their lines in yet, making the cost of creating the StackSummary cheaper (which may be valuable if it may not actually get formatted). If capture_locals is True the local variables in each FrameSummary are captured as object representations.

classmethod from_list(a_list)¶: Construct a StackSummary object from a supplied list of FrameSummary objects or old-style list of tuples. Each tuple should be a 4-tuple with filename, lineno, name, line as the elements.

format()¶

Returns a list of strings ready for printing. Each string in the resulting list corresponds to a single frame 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.

Changed in version 3.6: Long sequences of repeated frames are now abbreviated.

format_frame_summary(frame_summary)¶: Returns a string for printing one of the frames involved in the stack. This method is called for each FrameSummary object to be printed by StackSummary.format(). If it returns None, the frame is omitted from the output.

New in version 3.11.

`FrameSummary` Objects¶

New in version 3.5.

A FrameSummary object represents a single frame in a traceback.

class traceback.FrameSummary(filename, lineno, name, lookup_line=True, locals=None, line=None)¶: Represent a single frame in the traceback or stack that is being formatted or printed. It may optionally have a stringified version of the frames locals included in it. If lookup_line is False, the source code is not looked up until the FrameSummary has the line attribute accessed (which also happens when casting it to a tuple). line may be directly provided, and will prevent line lookups happening at all. locals is an optional local variable dictionary, and if supplied the variable representations are stored in the summary for later display.

Traceback Examples¶

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 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:

import sys, traceback

def lumberjack():
    bright_side_of_life()

def bright_side_of_life():
    return tuple()[0]

try:
    lumberjack()
except IndexError:
    exc = sys.exception()
    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:

*** 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',
 '  File "<doctest default[0]>", line 4, in lumberjack\n    bright_side_of_life()\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',
 '  File "<doctest default[0]>", line 4, in lumberjack\n    bright_side_of_life()\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(type(an_error), an_error)
['IndexError: tuple index out of range\n']

`traceback` — Print or retrieve a stack traceback¶

`TracebackException` Objects¶

`StackSummary` Objects¶

`FrameSummary` Objects¶

Traceback Examples¶

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traceback — Print or retrieve a stack traceback¶

TracebackException Objects¶

StackSummary Objects¶

FrameSummary Objects¶

Traceback Examples¶

`traceback` — Print or retrieve a stack traceback¶

`TracebackException` Objects¶

`StackSummary` Objects¶

`FrameSummary` Objects¶