python exception message capturing

Question

import ftplib
import urllib2
import os
import logging
logger = logging.getLogger('ftpuploader')
hdlr = logging.FileHandler('ftplog.log')
formatter = logging.Formatter('%(asctime)s %(levelname)s %(message)s')
hdlr.setFormatter(formatter)
logger.addHandler(hdlr)
logger.setLevel(logging.INFO)
FTPADDR = "some ftp address"

def upload_to_ftp(con, filepath):
    try:
        f = open(filepath,'rb')                # file to send
        con.storbinary('STOR '+ filepath, f)         # Send the file
        f.close()                                # Close file and FTP
        logger.info('File successfully uploaded to '+ FTPADDR)
    except, e:
        logger.error('Failed to upload to ftp: '+ str(e))

This doesn't seem to work, I get syntax error, what is the proper way of doing this for logging all kind of exceptions to a file

Answer 1

You have to define which type of exception you want to catch. So write except Exception, e: instead of except, e: for a general exception (that will be logged anyway).

Other possibility is to write your whole try/except code this way:

try:
    with open(filepath,'rb') as f:
        con.storbinary('STOR '+ filepath, f)
    logger.info('File successfully uploaded to '+ FTPADDR)
except Exception, e:
    logger.error('Failed to upload to ftp: '+ str(e))

in Python 3.x and modern versions of Python 2.x use except Exception as e instead of except Exception, e:

try:
    with open(filepath,'rb') as f:
        con.storbinary('STOR '+ filepath, f)
    logger.info('File successfully uploaded to '+ FTPADDR)
except Exception as e:
    logger.error('Failed to upload to ftp: '+ str(e))

Answer 2

The syntax is no longer supported in python 3. Use the following instead.

try:
    do_something()
except BaseException as e:
    logger.error('Failed to do something: ' + str(e))

Answer 3

Updating this to something simpler for logger (works for both python 2 and 3). You do not need traceback module.

import logging

logger = logging.Logger('catch_all')

def catchEverythingInLog():
    try:
        ... do something ...
    except Exception as e:
        logger.error(e, exc_info=True)
        ... exception handling ...

This is now the old way (though still works):

import sys, traceback

def catchEverything():
    try:
        ... some operation(s) ...
    except:
        exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
        ... exception handling ...

exc_value is the error message.

Answer 4

There are some cases where you can use the e.message or e.messages.. But it does not work in all cases. Anyway the more safe is to use the str(e)

try:
  ...
except Exception as e:
  print(e.message)

Answer 5

You can use logger.exception("msg") for logging exception with traceback:

try:
    #your code
except Exception as e:
    logger.exception('Failed: ' + str(e))

Answer 6

If you want error class, error message and stack trace (or either of them), use sys.exec_info().

Minimal working code with some formatting,

import sys
import traceback

try:
    ans = 1/0
except BaseException as ex:
    # Get current system exception
    ex_type, ex_value, ex_traceback = sys.exc_info()

    # Extract unformatter stack traces as tuples
    trace_back = traceback.extract_tb(ex_traceback)

    # Format stacktrace
    stack_trace = list()

    for trace in trace_back:
        stack_trace.append("File : %s , Line : %d, Func.Name : %s, Message : %s" % (trace[0], trace[1], trace[2], trace[3]))

    print("Exception type : %s " % ex_type.__name__)
    print("Exception message : %s" %ex_value)
    print("Stack trace : %s" %stack_trace)

Which will give out following output,

Exception type : ZeroDivisionError
Exception message : division by zero
Stack trace : ['File : .\\test.py , Line : 5, Func.Name : <module>, Message : ans = 1/0']

sys.exec_info()

This gives you the exception details about most recent exception. It return a tuple. Following are the tuple values (type, value, traceback).

traceback is an instance of traceback object. You can format the trace with provided methods. More can be found from traceback documentation

Answer 7

After python 3.6, you can use formatted string literal. It's neat! (https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.6.html#whatsnew36-pep498)

try
 ...
except Exception as e:
    logger.error(f"Failed to upload to ftp: {e}")

Answer 8

You can try specifying the BaseException type explicitly. However, this will only catch derivatives of BaseException. While this includes all implementation-provided exceptions, it is also possibly to raise arbitrary old-style classes.

try:
  do_something()
except BaseException, e:
  logger.error('Failed to do something: ' + str(e))

Answer 9

Use str(ex) to print execption

try:
   #your code
except ex:
   print(str(ex))