Possible simplification for old-style exception handling code in stdlib

[gvanrossum]

BPO	16141
Nosy	@gvanrossum, @vsajip, @ronaldoussoren, @bitdancer, @serhiy-storchaka
Files	reraise_keyboard_interrupt.patch

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2013-05-01.13:46:54.025>
created_at = <Date 2012-10-05.14:46:26.408>
labels = ['type-bug', 'library']
title = 'Possible simplification for old-style exception handling code in stdlib'
updated_at = <Date 2013-05-01.13:46:54.011>
user = 'https://github.com/gvanrossum'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2013-05-01.13:46:54.011>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2013-05-01.13:46:54.025>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2012-10-05.14:46:26.408>
creator = 'gvanrossum'
dependencies = []
files = ['27435']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 16141
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['172087', '172104', '172452', '188212', '188225']
nosy_count = 6.0
nosy_names = ['gvanrossum', 'vinay.sajip', 'ronaldoussoren', 'r.david.murray', 'python-dev', 'serhiy.storchaka']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue16141'
versions = ['Python 3.4']

[gvanrossum]

I just noticed that StreamHandler contains the following fragment in its emit() method:

try:
<do some writing>
except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit): #pragma: no cover
raise
except:
self.handleError(record)

Couldn't this be simplified to the following?

try:
<do some writing>
except Exception:
self.handleError(record)

I.e. instead of manually catching and re-raising a few BaseExceptions, just don't catch anything that derives from BaseException but not from Exception?

(I noticed because we have an internal clone of this class that occasionally gets augmented with yet another base exception that shouldn't be handled.

[serhiy-storchaka]

Couldn't this be simplified to the following?

I think this is idiomatic now (since 2.5).

There are some places where similar outdated code used. See the attached patch. There are more dubious places in Lib/multiprocessing/managers.py and Lib/asyncore.py.

[python-dev]

New changeset 46889b772442 by Vinay Sajip in branch 'default':
Issue bpo-16141: replaced old-style exception handling code in logging with the modern idiom.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/46889b772442

[ronaldoussoren]

Shouldn't this issue be closed? (the proposed patch was applied in Oct. last year)

[bitdancer]

I'm guessing Serhiy left it open because of the question about multiprocessing and asyncore. Given that he rated them as dubious, let's just close it.