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# 27.9. `traceback` — Print or retrieve a stack traceback

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 — this is the object type that is stored in the `sys.last_traceback` variable and returned as the third item from `sys.exc_info()`.

The module defines the following functions:

`traceback.``print_tb`(traceback, limit=None, file=None)

  Print up to limit stack trace entries from traceback. If limit is omitted or `None`, all entries are printed. If file is omitted or `None`, the output goes to `sys.stderr`; otherwise it should be an open file or file-like object to receive the output.

`traceback.``print_exception`(type, value, traceback, limit=None, file=None, chain=True)

  Print exception information and up to limit stack trace entries from traceback to file. This differs from `print_tb()` in the following ways:

  - if traceback is not `None`, it prints a header `Traceback (most recent call last):`
  - it prints the exception type and value after the stack trace
  - if type is `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.

  If chain is true (the default), then chained exceptions (the `__cause__` or `__context__` attributes of the exception) will be printed as well, like the interpreter itself does when printing an unhandled exception.

`traceback.``print_exc`(limit=None, file=None, chain=True)

  This is a shorthand for `print_exception(*sys.exc_info())`.

`traceback.``print_last`(limit=None, file=None, chain=True)

  This is a shorthand for `print_exception(sys.last_type, sys.last_value, sys.last_traceback, limit, file)`. In general it will work only after an exception has reached an interactive prompt (see `sys.last_type`).

`traceback.``print_stack`(f=None, limit=None, file=None)

  This function prints a stack trace from its invocation point. The optional f argument can be used to specify an alternate stack frame to start. The optional limit and file arguments have the same meaning as for `print_exception()`.

`traceback.``extract_tb`(traceback, limit=None)

  Return a list of up to limit “pre-processed” stack trace entries extracted from the traceback object traceback. It is useful for alternate formatting of stack traces. If limit is omitted or `None`, all entries are extracted. A “pre-processed” stack trace entry is a quadruple (filename, line number, function name, text) representing the information that is usually printed for a stack trace. The text is a string with leading and trailing whitespace stripped; if the source is not available it is `None`.

`traceback.``extract_stack`(f=None, limit=None)

  Extract the raw traceback from the current stack frame. The return value has the same format as for `extract_tb()`. The optional f and limit arguments have the same meaning as for `print_stack()`.

`traceback.``format_list`(list)

  Given a list of tuples as returned by `extract_tb()` or `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`.

`traceback.``format_exception_only`(type, value)

  Format the exception part of a traceback. The arguments are the exception type and value such as given by `sys.last_type` and `sys.last_value`. The return value is a list of strings, each ending in a newline. Normally, the list contains a single string; however, for `SyntaxError` exceptions, it contains several lines that (when printed) display detailed information about where the syntax error occurred. The message indicating which exception occurred is the always last string in the list.

`traceback.``format_exception`(type, 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 `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 `print_exception()`.

`traceback.``format_exc`(limit=None, chain=True)

  This is like `print_exc(limit)` but returns a string instead of printing to a file.

`traceback.``format_tb`(tb, limit=None)

  A shorthand for `format_list(extract_tb(tb, limit))`.

`traceback.``format_stack`(f=None, limit=None)

  A shorthand for `format_list(extract_stack(f, limit))`.

## 27.9.1. 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:
            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_death()

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

    try:
        lumberjack()
    except IndexError:
        exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
        print("*** print_tb:")
        traceback.print_tb(exc_traceback, limit=1, file=sys.stdout)
        print("*** print_exception:")
        traceback.print_exception(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback,
                                  limit=2, file=sys.stdout)
        print("*** print_exc:")
        traceback.print_exc()
        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_type, exc_value,
                                              exc_traceback)))
        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_death()
    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_death()
    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...>", line 10, in <module>\n    lumberjack()\n',
     '  File "<doctest...>", line 4, in lumberjack\n    bright_side_of_death()\n',
     '  File "<doctest...>", line 7, in bright_side_of_death\n    return tuple()[0]\n',
     'IndexError: tuple index out of range\n']
    *** extract_tb:
    [('<doctest...>', 10, '<module>', 'lumberjack()'),
     ('<doctest...>', 4, 'lumberjack', 'bright_side_of_death()'),
     ('<doctest...>', 7, 'bright_side_of_death', 'return tuple()[0]')]
    *** format_tb:
    ['  File "<doctest...>", line 10, in <module>\n    lumberjack()\n',
     '  File "<doctest...>", line 4, in lumberjack\n    bright_side_of_death()\n',
     '  File "<doctest...>", line 7, in bright_side_of_death\n    return tuple()[0]\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']

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