Important

This documentation covers IPython versions 6.0 and higher. Beginning with version 6.0, IPython stopped supporting compatibility with Python versions lower than 3.3 including all versions of Python 2.7.

If you are looking for an IPython version compatible with Python 2.7, please use the IPython 5.x LTS release and refer to its documentation (LTS is the long term support release).

Module: `core.ultratb`

Verbose and colourful traceback formatting.

ColorTB

I’ve always found it a bit hard to visually parse tracebacks in Python. The ColorTB class is a solution to that problem. It colors the different parts of a traceback in a manner similar to what you would expect from a syntax-highlighting text editor.

Installation instructions for ColorTB:

import sys,ultratb
sys.excepthook = ultratb.ColorTB()

VerboseTB

I’ve also included a port of Ka-Ping Yee’s “cgitb.py” that produces all kinds of useful info when a traceback occurs. Ping originally had it spit out HTML and intended it for CGI programmers, but why should they have all the fun? I altered it to spit out colored text to the terminal. It’s a bit overwhelming, but kind of neat, and maybe useful for long-running programs that you believe are bug-free. If a crash does occur in that type of program you want details. Give it a shot–you’ll love it or you’ll hate it.

Note

The Verbose mode prints the variables currently visible where the exception happened (shortening their strings if too long). This can potentially be very slow, if you happen to have a huge data structure whose string representation is complex to compute. Your computer may appear to freeze for a while with cpu usage at 100%. If this occurs, you can cancel the traceback with Ctrl-C (maybe hitting it more than once).

If you encounter this kind of situation often, you may want to use the Verbose_novars mode instead of the regular Verbose, which avoids formatting variables (but otherwise includes the information and context given by Verbose).

Note

The verbose mode print all variables in the stack, which means it can potentially leak sensitive information like access keys, or unencrypted password.

Installation instructions for VerboseTB:

import sys,ultratb
sys.excepthook = ultratb.VerboseTB()

Note: Much of the code in this module was lifted verbatim from the standard library module ‘traceback.py’ and Ka-Ping Yee’s ‘cgitb.py’.

Inheritance diagram:

6 Classes

class IPython.core.ultratb.ListTB(color_scheme: ~typing.Any = <object object>, call_pdb: bool = False, ostream: ~typing.Any = None, *, debugger_cls: type | None = None, theme_name: str = 'nocolor')

Bases: TBTools

Print traceback information from a traceback list, with optional color.

Calling requires 3 arguments: (etype, evalue, elist) as would be obtained by:

etype, evalue, tb = sys.exc_info()
if tb:
  elist = traceback.extract_tb(tb)
else:
  elist = None

It can thus be used by programs which need to process the traceback before printing (such as console replacements based on the code module from the standard library).

Because they are meant to be called without a full traceback (only a list), instances of this class can’t call the interactive pdb debugger.

get_exception_only(etype, value)

Only print the exception type and message, without a traceback.

Parameters:

etype (exception type)
value (exception value)

show_exception_only(etype: BaseException | None, evalue: TracebackType | None) → None

Only print the exception type and message, without a traceback.

Parameters:

etype (exception type)
evalue (exception value)

structured_traceback(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None = None, tb_offset: int | None = None, context: int = 5) → list[str]

Return a color formatted string with the traceback info.

Parameters:

etype (exception type) – Type of the exception raised.
evalue (object) – Data stored in the exception
etb (list | TracebackType | None) – If list: List of frames, see class docstring for details. If Traceback: Traceback of the exception.
tb_offset (int, optional) – Number of frames in the traceback to skip. If not given, the instance evalue is used (set in constructor).
context (int, optional) – Number of lines of context information to print.

Return type:

String with formatted exception.

class IPython.core.ultratb.VerboseTB(theme_name: str = 'default', call_pdb: bool = False, ostream: ~typing.Any = None, tb_offset: int = 0, long_header: bool = False, include_vars: bool = True, check_cache: ~typing.Callable[[], None] | None = None, debugger_cls: type | None = None, *, color_scheme: ~typing.Any = <object object>)

Bases: TBTools

A port of Ka-Ping Yee’s cgitb.py module that outputs color text instead of HTML. Requires inspect and pydoc. Crazy, man.

Modified version which optionally strips the topmost entries from the traceback, to be used with alternate interpreters (because their own code would appear in the traceback).

__init__(theme_name: str = 'default', call_pdb: bool = False, ostream: ~typing.Any = None, tb_offset: int = 0, long_header: bool = False, include_vars: bool = True, check_cache: ~typing.Callable[[], None] | None = None, debugger_cls: type | None = None, *, color_scheme: ~typing.Any = <object object>)

Specify traceback offset, headers and color scheme.

Define how many frames to drop from the tracebacks. Calling it with tb_offset=1 allows use of this handler in interpreters which will have their own code at the top of the traceback (VerboseTB will first remove that frame before printing the traceback info).

debugger(force: bool = False) → None

Call up the pdb debugger if desired, always clean up the tb reference.

Keywords:

force(False): by default, this routine checks the instance call_pdb flag and does not actually invoke the debugger if the flag is false. The ‘force’ option forces the debugger to activate even if the flag is false.

If the call_pdb flag is set, the pdb interactive debugger is invoked. In all cases, the self.tb reference to the current traceback is deleted to prevent lingering references which hamper memory management.

Note that each call to pdb() does an ‘import readline’, so if your app requires a special setup for the readline completers, you’ll have to fix that by hand after invoking the exception handler.

format_exception_as_a_whole(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None, context: int, tb_offset: int | None) → list[list[str]]

Formats the header, traceback and exception message for a single exception.

This may be called multiple times by Python 3 exception chaining (PEP 3134).

format_record(frame_info: FrameInfo) → str: Format a single stack frame

structured_traceback(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None = None, tb_offset: int | None = None, context: int = 5) → list[str]: Return a nice text document describing the traceback.

class IPython.core.ultratb.FormattedTB(mode='Plain', theme_name='linux', call_pdb=False, ostream=None, tb_offset=0, long_header=False, include_vars=False, check_cache=None, debugger_cls=None)

Bases: VerboseTB, ListTB

Subclass ListTB but allow calling with a traceback.

It can thus be used as a sys.excepthook for Python > 2.1.

Also adds ‘Context’ and ‘Verbose’ modes, not available in ListTB.

Allows a tb_offset to be specified. This is useful for situations where one needs to remove a number of topmost frames from the traceback (such as occurs with python programs that themselves execute other python code, like Python shells).

__init__(mode='Plain', theme_name='linux', call_pdb=False, ostream=None, tb_offset=0, long_header=False, include_vars=False, check_cache=None, debugger_cls=None)

Specify traceback offset, headers and color scheme.

Define how many frames to drop from the tracebacks. Calling it with tb_offset=1 allows use of this handler in interpreters which will have their own code at the top of the traceback (VerboseTB will first remove that frame before printing the traceback info).

set_mode(mode: str | None = None) → None

Switch to the desired mode.

If mode is not specified, cycles through the available modes.

stb2text(stb: list[str]) → str: Convert a structured traceback (a list) to a string.

structured_traceback(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None = None, tb_offset: int | None = None, context: int = 5) → list[str]: Return a nice text document describing the traceback.

class IPython.core.ultratb.AutoFormattedTB(mode='Plain', theme_name='linux', call_pdb=False, ostream=None, tb_offset=0, long_header=False, include_vars=False, check_cache=None, debugger_cls=None)

Bases: FormattedTB

A traceback printer which can be called on the fly.

It will find out about exceptions by itself.

A brief example:

AutoTB = AutoFormattedTB(mode = 'Verbose', theme_name='linux')
try:
  ...
except:
  AutoTB()  # or AutoTB(out=logfile) where logfile is an open file object

structured_traceback(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None = None, tb_offset: int | None = None, context: int = 5) → list[str]: Return a nice text document describing the traceback.

class IPython.core.ultratb.ColorTB(*args, **kwargs)

Bases: FormattedTB

Deprecated since IPython 9.0.

__init__(*args, **kwargs)

Specify traceback offset, headers and color scheme.

Define how many frames to drop from the tracebacks. Calling it with tb_offset=1 allows use of this handler in interpreters which will have their own code at the top of the traceback (VerboseTB will first remove that frame before printing the traceback info).

class IPython.core.ultratb.SyntaxTB(*, theme_name)

Bases: ListTB

Extension which holds some state: the last exception value

__init__(*, theme_name)

clear_err_state() → Any | None: Return the current error state and clear it

stb2text(stb: list[str]) → str: Convert a structured traceback (a list) to a string.

structured_traceback(etype: type, evalue: BaseException | None, etb: TracebackType | None = None, tb_offset: int | None = None, context: int = 5) → list[str]

Return a color formatted string with the traceback info.

Parameters:

etype (exception type) – Type of the exception raised.
evalue (object) – Data stored in the exception
etb (list | TracebackType | None) – If list: List of frames, see class docstring for details. If Traceback: Traceback of the exception.
tb_offset (int, optional) – Number of frames in the traceback to skip. If not given, the instance evalue is used (set in constructor).
context (int, optional) – Number of lines of context information to print.

Return type:

String with formatted exception.

Module: core.ultratb

6 Classes

Module: `core.ultratb`