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<h1>Python Enhancement Proposals</h1>
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<section id="pep-content">
<h1 class="page-title">PEP 344 Exception Chaining and Embedded Tracebacks</h1>
<dl class="rfc2822 field-list simple">
<dt class="field-odd">Author<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">Ka-Ping Yee</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Status<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><abbr title="Replaced by another succeeding PEP">Superseded</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Type<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd"><abbr title="Normative PEP with a new feature for Python, implementation change for CPython or interoperability standard for the ecosystem">Standards Track</abbr></dd>
<dt class="field-even">Created<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even">12-May-2005</dd>
<dt class="field-odd">Python-Version<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-odd">2.5</dd>
<dt class="field-even">Post-History<span class="colon">:</span></dt>
<dd class="field-even"><p></p></dd>
</dl>
<hr class="docutils" />
<section id="contents">
<details><summary>Table of Contents</summary><ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#numbering-note">Numbering Note</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#history">History</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#implicit-exception-chaining">Implicit Exception Chaining</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#explicit-exception-chaining">Explicit Exception Chaining</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#traceback-attribute">Traceback Attribute</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#enhanced-reporting">Enhanced Reporting</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#c-api">C API</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#compatibility">Compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-extra-information">Open Issue: Extra Information</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-suppressing-context">Open Issue: Suppressing Context</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-limiting-exception-types">Open Issue: Limiting Exception Types</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-yield">Open Issue: yield</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-garbage-collection">Open Issue: Garbage Collection</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#possible-future-compatible-changes">Possible Future Compatible Changes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#possible-future-incompatible-changes">Possible Future Incompatible Changes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#references">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</details></section>
<section id="numbering-note">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#numbering-note" role="doc-backlink">Numbering Note</a></h2>
<p>This PEP has been renumbered to <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-3134/" title="PEP 3134 Exception Chaining and Embedded Tracebacks">PEP 3134</a>. The text below is the last version
submitted under the old number.</p>
</section>
<section id="abstract">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#abstract" role="doc-backlink">Abstract</a></h2>
<p>This PEP proposes three standard attributes on exception instances: the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute for implicitly chained exceptions, the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute for explicitly chained exceptions, and the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute for the traceback. A new <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span> <span class="pre">...</span> <span class="pre">from</span></code>
statement sets the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute.</p>
</section>
<section id="motivation">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#motivation" role="doc-backlink">Motivation</a></h2>
<p>During the handling of one exception (exception A), it is possible that another
exception (exception B) may occur. In todays Python (version 2.4), if this
happens, exception B is propagated outward and exception A is lost. In order
to debug the problem, it is useful to know about both exceptions. The
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute retains this information automatically.</p>
<p>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 <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute provides an explicit way to
record the direct cause of an exception.</p>
<p>In todays Python implementation, exceptions are composed of three parts: the
type, the value, and the traceback. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys</span></code> module, exposes the current
exception in three parallel variables, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exc_type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exc_value</span></code>, and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exc_traceback</span></code>, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_info()</span></code> function returns a tuple of these
three parts, and the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span></code> statement has a three-argument form accepting
these three parts. Manipulating exceptions often requires passing these three
things in parallel, which can be tedious and error-prone. Additionally, the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> statement can only provide access to the value, not the traceback.
Adding the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute to exception values makes all the
exception information accessible from a single place.</p>
</section>
<section id="history">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#history" role="doc-backlink">History</a></h2>
<p>Raymond Hettinger <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id16" id="id1">[1]</a> raised the issue of masked exceptions on Python-Dev in
January 2003 and proposed a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_FormatAppend()</span></code> function that C modules
could use to augment the currently active exception with more information.
Brett Cannon <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id17" id="id2">[2]</a> brought up chained exceptions again in June 2003, prompting
a long discussion.</p>
<p>Greg Ewing <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id18" id="id3">[3]</a> identified the case of an exception occurring in a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally</span></code>
block during unwinding triggered by an original exception, as distinct from
the case of an exception occurring in an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> block that is handling the
original exception.</p>
<p>Greg Ewing <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id19" id="id4">[4]</a> and Guido van Rossum <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id20" id="id5">[5]</a>, and probably others, have
previously mentioned adding a traceback attribute to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Exception</span></code> instances.
This is noted in <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-3000/" title="PEP 3000 Python 3000">PEP 3000</a>.</p>
<p>This PEP was motivated by yet another recent Python-Dev reposting of the same
ideas <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id21" id="id6">[6]</a> <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id22" id="id7">[7]</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="rationale">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#rationale" role="doc-backlink">Rationale</a></h2>
<p>The Python-Dev discussions revealed interest in exception chaining for two
quite different purposes. To handle the unexpected raising of a secondary
exception, the exception must be retained implicitly. To support intentional
translation of an exception, there must be a way to chain exceptions
explicitly. This PEP addresses both.</p>
<p>Several attribute names for chained exceptions have been suggested on
Python-Dev <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id17" id="id8">[2]</a>, including <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cause</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">antecedent</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">reason</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">original</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">chain</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">chainedexc</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">xc_chain</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">excprev</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">previous</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">precursor</span></code>. For an explicitly chained exception, this PEP suggests
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> because of its specific meaning. For an implicitly chained
exception, this PEP proposes the name <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> because the intended
meaning is more specific than temporal precedence but less specific than
causation: an exception occurs in the context of handling another exception.</p>
<p>This PEP suggests names with leading and trailing double-underscores for these
three attributes because they are set by the Python VM. Only in very special
cases should they be set by normal assignment.</p>
<p>This PEP handles exceptions that occur during <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> blocks and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally</span></code> blocks in the same way. Reading the traceback makes it clear
where the exceptions occurred, so additional mechanisms for distinguishing
the two cases would only add unnecessary complexity.</p>
<p>This PEP proposes that the outermost exception object (the one exposed for
matching by <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> clauses) be the most recently raised exception for
compatibility with current behaviour.</p>
<p>This PEP proposes that tracebacks display the outermost exception last,
because this would be consistent with the chronological order of tracebacks
(from oldest to most recent frame) and because the actual thrown exception is
easier to find on the last line.</p>
<p>To keep things simpler, the C API calls for setting an exception will not
automatically set the exceptions <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code>. Guido van Rossum has
expressed concerns with making such changes <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id23" id="id9">[8]</a>.</p>
<p>As for other languages, Java and Ruby both discard the original exception when
another exception occurs in a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">catch/rescue</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally/ensure</span></code> clause.
Perl 5 lacks built-in structured exception handling. For Perl 6, RFC number
88 <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id24" id="id10">[9]</a> proposes an exception mechanism that implicitly retains chained
exceptions in an array named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;&#64;</span></code>. In that RFC, the most recently raised
exception is exposed for matching, as in this PEP; also, arbitrary expressions
(possibly involving <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">&#64;&#64;</span></code>) can be evaluated for exception matching.</p>
<p>Exceptions in C# contain a read-only <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InnerException</span></code> property that may
point to another exception. Its documentation <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id25" id="id11">[10]</a> says that “When an
exception X is thrown as a direct result of a previous exception Y, the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InnerException</span></code> property of X should contain a reference to Y.” This
property is not set by the VM automatically; rather, all exception
constructors take an optional <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">innerException</span></code> argument to set it
explicitly. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute fulfills the same purpose as
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InnerException</span></code>, but this PEP proposes a new form of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span></code> rather than
extending the constructors of all exceptions. C# also provides a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">GetBaseException</span></code> method that jumps directly to the end of the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">InnerException</span></code> chain; this PEP proposes no analog.</p>
<p>The reason all three of these attributes are presented together in one proposal
is that the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute provides convenient access to the
traceback on chained exceptions.</p>
</section>
<section id="implicit-exception-chaining">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#implicit-exception-chaining" role="doc-backlink">Implicit Exception Chaining</a></h2>
<p>Here is an example to illustrate the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">compute</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">a</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">b</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">a</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="n">b</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">file</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;logfile.txt&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># oops, forgot the &#39;w&#39;</span>
<span class="nb">print</span> <span class="o">&gt;&gt;</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span>
<span class="n">file</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">close</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Calling <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compute(0,</span> <span class="pre">0)</span></code> causes a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ZeroDivisionError</span></code>. The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compute()</span></code>
function catches this exception and calls <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">log(exc)</span></code>, but the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">log()</span></code>
function also raises an exception when it tries to write to a file that wasnt
opened for writing.</p>
<p>In todays Python, the caller of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">compute()</span></code> gets thrown an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">IOError</span></code>. The
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ZeroDivisionError</span></code> is lost. With the proposed change, the instance of
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">IOError</span></code> has an additional <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute that retains the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ZeroDivisionError</span></code>.</p>
<p>The following more elaborate example demonstrates the handling of a mixture of
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> clauses:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">main</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">file</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># oops, forgot the &#39;w&#39;</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">compute</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">finally</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">file</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">clos</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="c1"># oops, misspelled &#39;close&#39;</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">compute</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="mi">1</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">log</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="nb">print</span> <span class="o">&gt;&gt;</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span> <span class="c1"># oops, file is not writable</span>
<span class="k">except</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">display</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">display</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="nb">print</span> <span class="n">ex</span> <span class="c1"># oops, misspelled &#39;exc&#39;</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Calling <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">main()</span></code> with the name of an existing file will trigger four
exceptions. The ultimate result will be an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">AttributeError</span></code> due to the
misspelling of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">clos</span></code>, whose <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> points to a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">NameError</span></code> due
to the misspelling of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ex</span></code>, whose <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> points to an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">IOError</span></code>
due to the file being read-only, whose <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> points to a
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ZeroDivisionError</span></code>, whose <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<p>The proposed semantics are as follows:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>Each thread has an exception context initially set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</li>
<li>Whenever an exception is raised, if the exception instance does not
already have a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute, the interpreter sets it equal to
the threads exception context.</li>
<li>Immediately after an exception is raised, the threads exception context is
set to the exception.</li>
<li>Whenever the interpreter exits an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> block by reaching the end or
executing a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">return</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">yield</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">continue</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">break</span></code> statement,
the threads exception context is set to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</li>
</ol>
</section>
<section id="explicit-exception-chaining">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#explicit-exception-chaining" role="doc-backlink">Explicit Exception Chaining</a></h2>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute on exception objects is always initialized to
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>. It is set by a new form of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span></code> statement:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">EXCEPTION</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">CAUSE</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>which is equivalent to:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">exc</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">EXCEPTION</span>
<span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__cause__</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">CAUSE</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">exc</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In the following example, a database provides implementations for a few
different kinds of storage, with file storage as one kind. The database
designer wants errors to propagate as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DatabaseError</span></code> objects so that the
client doesnt have to be aware of the storage-specific details, but doesnt
want to lose the underlying error information:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">DatabaseError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">StandardError</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">pass</span>
<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">FileDatabase</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">Database</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="fm">__init__</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">file</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">filename</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">IOError</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">DatabaseError</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;failed to open&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">exc</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>If the call to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">open()</span></code> raises an exception, the problem will be reported as
a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">DatabaseError</span></code>, with a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute that reveals the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">IOError</span></code> as the original cause.</p>
</section>
<section id="traceback-attribute">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#traceback-attribute" role="doc-backlink">Traceback Attribute</a></h2>
<p>The following example illustrates the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">do_logged</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">work</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">work</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">write_exception</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">exc</span>
<span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">traceback</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">format_tb</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">write_exception</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">file</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
<span class="nb">type</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="vm">__class__</span>
<span class="n">message</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">str</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">lines</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">format_tb</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__traceback__</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">file</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">write</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">...</span> <span class="nb">type</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="n">message</span> <span class="o">...</span> <span class="n">lines</span> <span class="o">...</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="o">...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In todays Python, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">do_logged()</span></code> function would have to extract the
traceback from <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_traceback</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_info()</span></code> <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id17" id="id12">[2]</a> and pass both
the value and the traceback to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">write_exception()</span></code>. With the proposed
change, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">write_exception()</span></code> simply gets one argument and obtains the
exception using the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute.</p>
<p>The proposed semantics are as follows:</p>
<ol class="arabic simple">
<li>Whenever an exception is caught, if the exception instance does not already
have a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute, the interpreter sets it to the newly
caught traceback.</li>
</ol>
</section>
<section id="enhanced-reporting">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#enhanced-reporting" role="doc-backlink">Enhanced Reporting</a></h2>
<p>The default exception handler will be modified to report chained exceptions.
The chain of exceptions is traversed by following the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attributes, with <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> taking priority. In keeping
with the chronological order of tracebacks, the most recently raised exception
is displayed last; that is, the display begins with the description of the
innermost exception and backs up the chain to the outermost exception. The
tracebacks are formatted as usual, with one of the lines:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">The</span> <span class="n">above</span> <span class="n">exception</span> <span class="n">was</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">direct</span> <span class="n">cause</span> <span class="n">of</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">following</span> <span class="n">exception</span><span class="p">:</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">During</span> <span class="n">handling</span> <span class="n">of</span> <span class="n">the</span> <span class="n">above</span> <span class="n">exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">another</span> <span class="n">exception</span> <span class="n">occurred</span><span class="p">:</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>between tracebacks, depending whether they are linked by <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> or
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> respectively. Here is a sketch of the procedure:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">print_chain</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__cause__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">print_chain</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__cause__</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">print</span> <span class="s1">&#39;</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s1">The above exception was the direct cause...&#39;</span>
<span class="k">elif</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__context__</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">print_chain</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">__context__</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="nb">print</span> <span class="s1">&#39;</span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s1">During handling of the above exception, ...&#39;</span>
<span class="n">print_exc</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">traceback</span></code> module, the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">format_exception</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">print_exception</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">print_exc</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">print_last</span> <span class="pre">functions</span></code> will be updated to accept an
optional <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">chain</span></code> argument, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code> by default. When this argument is
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">True</span></code>, these functions will format or display the entire chain of
exceptions as just described. When it is <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">False</span></code>, these functions will
format or display only the outermost exception.</p>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cgitb</span></code> module should also be updated to display the entire chain of
exceptions.</p>
</section>
<section id="c-api">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#c-api" role="doc-backlink">C API</a></h2>
<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_Set*</span></code> calls for setting exceptions will not set the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> attribute on exceptions. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_NormalizeException</span></code> will
always set the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">traceback</span></code> attribute to its <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tb</span></code> argument and the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attributes to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code>.</p>
<p>A new API function, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_SetContext(context)</span></code>, will help C programmers
provide chained exception information. This function will first normalize the
current exception so it is an instance, then set its <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code>
attribute. A similar API function, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_SetCause(cause)</span></code>, will set the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code> attribute.</p>
</section>
<section id="compatibility">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#compatibility" role="doc-backlink">Compatibility</a></h2>
<p>Chained exceptions expose the type of the most recent exception, so they will
still match the same <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> clauses as they do now.</p>
<p>The proposed changes should not break any code unless it sets or uses
attributes named <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__cause__</span></code>, or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> on
exception instances. As of 2005-05-12, the Python standard library contains
no mention of such attributes.</p>
</section>
<section id="open-issue-extra-information">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issue-extra-information" role="doc-backlink">Open Issue: Extra Information</a></h2>
<p>Walter Dörwald <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id26" id="id13">[11]</a> expressed a desire to attach extra information to an
exception during its upward propagation without changing its type. This could
be a useful feature, but it is not addressed by this PEP. It could
conceivably be addressed by a separate PEP establishing conventions for other
informational attributes on exceptions.</p>
</section>
<section id="open-issue-suppressing-context">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issue-suppressing-context" role="doc-backlink">Open Issue: Suppressing Context</a></h2>
<p>As written, this PEP makes it impossible to suppress <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__context__</span></code>, since
setting <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exc.__context__</span></code> to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">None</span></code> in an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> or <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">finally</span></code> clause
will only result in it being set again when <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exc</span></code> is raised.</p>
</section>
<section id="open-issue-limiting-exception-types">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issue-limiting-exception-types" role="doc-backlink">Open Issue: Limiting Exception Types</a></h2>
<p>To improve encapsulation, library implementors may want to wrap all
implementation-level exceptions with an application-level exception. One could
try to wrap exceptions by writing this:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span> <span class="n">implementation</span> <span class="n">may</span> <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">an</span> <span class="n">exception</span> <span class="o">...</span>
<span class="k">except</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">sys</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">ApplicationError</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">sys.exc_value</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or this</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span> <span class="n">implementation</span> <span class="n">may</span> <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">an</span> <span class="n">exception</span> <span class="o">...</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">ApplicationError</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">exc</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>but both are somewhat flawed. It would be nice to be able to name the current
exception in a catch-all <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">except</span></code> clause, but that isnt addressed here.
Such a feature would allow something like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="o">...</span> <span class="n">implementation</span> <span class="n">may</span> <span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">an</span> <span class="n">exception</span> <span class="o">...</span>
<span class="k">except</span> <span class="o">*</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">exc</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">raise</span> <span class="n">ApplicationError</span> <span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">exc</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="open-issue-yield">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issue-yield" role="doc-backlink">Open Issue: yield</a></h2>
<p>The exception context is lost when a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">yield</span></code> statement is executed; resuming
the frame after the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">yield</span></code> does not restore the context. Addressing this
problem is out of the scope of this PEP; it is not a new problem, as
demonstrated by the following example:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">gen</span><span class="p">():</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">except</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">yield</span> <span class="mi">3</span>
<span class="gp">... </span> <span class="k">raise</span>
<span class="gp">...</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">g</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">gen</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">g</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">next</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">3</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="n">g</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">next</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="go">TypeError: exceptions must be classes, instances, or strings</span>
<span class="go">(deprecated), not NoneType</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</section>
<section id="open-issue-garbage-collection">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#open-issue-garbage-collection" role="doc-backlink">Open Issue: Garbage Collection</a></h2>
<p>The strongest objection to this proposal has been that it creates cycles
between exceptions and stack frames <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id27" id="id14">[12]</a>. Collection of cyclic garbage (and
therefore resource release) can be greatly delayed:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">try</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mi">0</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span><span class="k">except</span> <span class="ne">Exception</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">err</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="gp">&gt;&gt;&gt; </span> <span class="k">pass</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>will introduce a cycle from err -&gt; traceback -&gt; stack frame -&gt; err, keeping
all locals in the same scope alive until the next GC happens.</p>
<p>Today, these locals would go out of scope. There is lots of code which
assumes that “local” resources particularly open files will be closed
quickly. If closure has to wait for the next GC, a program (which runs fine
today) may run out of file handles.</p>
<p>Making the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__traceback__</span></code> attribute a weak reference would avoid the
problems with cyclic garbage. Unfortunately, it would make saving the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Exception</span></code> for later (as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">unittest</span></code> does) more awkward, and it would not
allow as much cleanup of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys</span></code> module.</p>
<p>A possible alternate solution, suggested by Adam Olsen, would be to instead
turn the reference from the stack frame to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">err</span></code> variable into a weak
reference when the variable goes out of scope <a class="footnote-reference brackets" href="#id28" id="id15">[13]</a>.</p>
</section>
<section id="possible-future-compatible-changes">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#possible-future-compatible-changes" role="doc-backlink">Possible Future Compatible Changes</a></h2>
<p>These changes are consistent with the appearance of exceptions as a single
object rather than a triple at the interpreter level.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>If <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0340/" title="PEP 340 Anonymous Block Statements">PEP 340</a> or <a class="pep reference internal" href="../pep-0343/" title="PEP 343 The “with” Statement">PEP 343</a> is accepted, replace the three (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">value</span></code>,
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">traceback</span></code>) arguments to <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">__exit__</span></code> with a single exception argument.</li>
<li>Deprecate <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_value</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_traceback</span></code>, and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_info()</span></code> in favour of a single member, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exception</span></code>.</li>
<li>Deprecate <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_value</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_traceback</span></code>
in favour of a single member, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_exception</span></code>.</li>
<li>Deprecate the three-argument form of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span></code> statement in favour of
the one-argument form.</li>
<li>Upgrade <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cgitb.html()</span></code> to accept a single value as its first argument as
an alternative to a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">(type,</span> <span class="pre">value,</span> <span class="pre">traceback)</span></code> tuple.</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="possible-future-incompatible-changes">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#possible-future-incompatible-changes" role="doc-backlink">Possible Future Incompatible Changes</a></h2>
<p>These changes might be worth considering for Python 3000.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Remove <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_value</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_traceback</span></code>, and
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.exc_info()</span></code>.</li>
<li>Remove <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_value</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.last_traceback</span></code>.</li>
<li>Replace the three-argument <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">sys.excepthook</span></code> with a one-argument API, and
changing the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">cgitb</span></code> module to match.</li>
<li>Remove the three-argument form of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">raise</span></code> statement.</li>
<li>Upgrade <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">traceback.print_exception</span></code> to accept an <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">exception</span></code> argument
instead of the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">type</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">value</span></code>, and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">traceback</span></code> arguments.</li>
</ul>
</section>
<section id="acknowledgements">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#acknowledgements" role="doc-backlink">Acknowledgements</a></h2>
<p>Brett Cannon, Greg Ewing, Guido van Rossum, Jeremy Hylton, Phillip J. Eby,
Raymond Hettinger, Walter Dörwald, and others.</p>
</section>
<section id="references">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#references" role="doc-backlink">References</a></h2>
<aside class="footnote-list brackets">
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id16" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id16">[<a href="#id1">1</a>]</dt>
<dd>Raymond Hettinger, “Idea for avoiding exception masking”
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-January/032492.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-January/032492.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id17" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id17">[2]<em> (<a href='#id2'>1</a>, <a href='#id8'>2</a>, <a href='#id12'>3</a>) </em></dt>
<dd>Brett Cannon explains chained exceptions
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036063.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036063.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id18" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id18">[<a href="#id3">3</a>]</dt>
<dd>Greg Ewing points out masking caused by exceptions during finally
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036290.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036290.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id19" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id19">[<a href="#id4">4</a>]</dt>
<dd>Greg Ewing suggests storing the traceback in the exception object
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036092.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036092.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id20" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id20">[<a href="#id5">5</a>]</dt>
<dd>Guido van Rossum mentions exceptions having a traceback attribute
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-April/053060.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-April/053060.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id21" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id21">[<a href="#id6">6</a>]</dt>
<dd>Ka-Ping Yee, “Tidier Exceptions”
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-May/053671.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-May/053671.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id22" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id22">[<a href="#id7">7</a>]</dt>
<dd>Ka-Ping Yee, “Chained Exceptions”
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-May/053672.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-May/053672.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id23" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id23">[<a href="#id9">8</a>]</dt>
<dd>Guido van Rossum discusses automatic chaining in <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">PyErr_Set*</span></code>
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036180.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036180.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id24" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id24">[<a href="#id10">9</a>]</dt>
<dd>Tony Olensky, “Omnibus Structured Exception/Error Handling Mechanism”
<a class="reference external" href="http://dev.perl.org/perl6/rfc/88.html">http://dev.perl.org/perl6/rfc/88.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id25" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id25">[<a href="#id11">10</a>]</dt>
<dd>MSDN .NET Framework Library, “Exception.InnerException Property”
<a class="reference external" href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemexceptionclassinnerexceptiontopic.asp">http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemexceptionclassinnerexceptiontopic.asp</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id26" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id26">[<a href="#id13">11</a>]</dt>
<dd>Walter Dörwald suggests wrapping exceptions to add details
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036148.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2003-June/036148.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id27" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id27">[<a href="#id14">12</a>]</dt>
<dd>Guido van Rossum restates the objection to cyclic trash
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-January/005322.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-January/005322.html</a></aside>
<aside class="footnote brackets" id="id28" role="doc-footnote">
<dt class="label" id="id28">[<a href="#id15">13</a>]</dt>
<dd>Adam Olsen suggests using a weakref from stack frame to exception
<a class="reference external" href="https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-January/005363.html">https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-3000/2007-January/005363.html</a></aside>
</aside>
</section>
<section id="copyright">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#copyright" role="doc-backlink">Copyright</a></h2>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
</section>
</section>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>Source: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0344.rst">https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0344.rst</a></p>
<p>Last modified: <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/python/peps/commits/main/peps/pep-0344.rst">2023-09-09 17:39:29 GMT</a></p>
</article>
<nav id="pep-sidebar">
<h2>Contents</h2>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#numbering-note">Numbering Note</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#abstract">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#motivation">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#history">History</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#implicit-exception-chaining">Implicit Exception Chaining</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#explicit-exception-chaining">Explicit Exception Chaining</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#traceback-attribute">Traceback Attribute</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#enhanced-reporting">Enhanced Reporting</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#c-api">C API</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#compatibility">Compatibility</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-extra-information">Open Issue: Extra Information</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-suppressing-context">Open Issue: Suppressing Context</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-limiting-exception-types">Open Issue: Limiting Exception Types</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-yield">Open Issue: yield</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#open-issue-garbage-collection">Open Issue: Garbage Collection</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#possible-future-compatible-changes">Possible Future Compatible Changes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#possible-future-incompatible-changes">Possible Future Incompatible Changes</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#references">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#copyright">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
<br>
<a id="source" href="https://github.com/python/peps/blob/main/peps/pep-0344.rst">Page Source (GitHub)</a>
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