Exception handling

Catching exceptions

Whenever we catch an exception in an except clause, the following rules apply:

  • unless we (re-)raise, the first line instantiates a CapturedException:

    except Exception as e:
        ce = CapturedException(e)
    

    First, this ensures a low-level (8) log entry including the traceback of that exception. The depth of the included traceback can be limited by setting the datalad.exc.str.tb_limit config accordingly.

    Second, it deletes the frame stack references of the exception and keeps textual information only, in order to avoid circular references, where an object (whose method raised the exception) isn’t going to be picked by the garbage collection. This can be particularly troublesome if that object holds a reference to a subprocess for example. However, it’s not easy to see in what situation this would really be needed and we never need anything other than the textual information about what happened. Making the reference cleaning a general rule is easiest to write, maintain and review.

  • if we raise, neither a log entry nor such a CapturedException instance is to be created. Eventually, there will be a spot where that (re-)raised exception is caught. This then is the right place to log it. That log entry will have the traceback, there’s no need to leave a trace by means of log messages!

  • if we raise, but do not simply reraise that exact same exception, in order to change the exception class and/or its message, raise from must be used!:

    except SomeError as e:
        raise NewError("new message") from e
    

    This ensures that the original exception is properly registered as the cause for the exception via its __cause__ attribute. Hence, the original exception’s traceback will be part of the later on logged traceback of the new exception.

Messaging about an exception

In addition to the auto-generated low-level log entry there might be a need to create a higher-level log, a user message or a (result) dictionary that includes information from that exception. While such messaging may use anything the (captured) exception provides, please consider that “technical” details about an exception are already auto-logged and generally not incredibly meaningful for users.

For message creation CapturedException comes with a couple of format_* helper methods, its __str__ provides a short representation of the form ExceptionClass(message) and its __repr__ the log form with a traceback that is used for the auto-generated log.

For result dictionaries CapturedException can be assigned to the field exception. Currently, get_status_dict will consider this field and create an additional field with a traceback string. Hence, whether putting a captured exception into that field actually has an effect depends on whether get_status_dict is subsequently used with that dictionary. In the future such functionality may move into result renderers instead, leaving the decision of what to do with the passed CapturedException to them. Therefore, even if of no immediate effect, enhancing the result dicts accordingly makes sense already, since it may be useful when using datalad via its python interface already and provide instant benefits whenever the result rendering gets such an upgrade.