Simplify exception handling in doctest.py

[sobolevn]

BPO	46531
Nosy	@sobolevn, @iritkatriel
PRs	bpo-46531: simplify exception handling in doctest.py #30916

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

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2022-01-26.10:07:07.782>
created_at = <Date 2022-01-26.09:42:50.870>
labels = ['invalid', 'type-bug', 'library', '3.11']
title = 'Simplify exception handling in `doctest.py`'
updated_at = <Date 2022-01-26.10:16:22.060>
user = 'https://github.com/sobolevn'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2022-01-26.10:16:22.060>
actor = 'iritkatriel'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2022-01-26.10:07:07.782>
closer = 'sobolevn'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2022-01-26.09:42:50.870>
creator = 'sobolevn'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 46531
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 5.0
messages = ['411720', '411722', '411724', '411728', '411730']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['sobolevn', 'iritkatriel']
pr_nums = ['30916']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'behavior'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue46531'
versions = ['Python 3.11']

[sobolevn]

Right now there are two places where sys.exc_info() calls are not required anymore:

1. cpython/Lib/doctest.py

   Lines 1352 to 1353 in 6e5a193

   	except:
   	exception = sys.exc_info()

2. cpython/Lib/doctest.py

   Lines 2640 to 2641 in 6e5a193

   	except:
   	print(sys.exc_info()[1])

There are also places where it is exposed as a part of public API (I am not going to change that, at least in this PR):

• cpython/Lib/doctest.py

  Line 1757 in 6e5a193

  self.exc_info = exc_info

• cpython/Lib/doctest.py

  Line 1262 in 6e5a193

  def report_unexpected_exception(self, out, test, example, exc_info):

And some private APIs (out of scope as well):

• cpython/Lib/doctest.py

  Line 244 in 6e5a193

  def _exception_traceback(exc_info):

PR is on its way!

[iritkatriel]

I don't think this is worth doing in a module where we can't completely get rid of the exc_info triplet.

[iritkatriel]

In other words, I don't see why it's an improvement to replace

    exception = sys.exc_info()

by

    exception = type(exc), exc, exc.__traceback__

when sys.exc_info() does exactly what your inlined version does.

[sobolevn]

Fair enough! The only improvement is that we don't call sys.exc_info twice here:

cpython/Lib/doctest.py

Lines 2641 to 2644 in 6e5a193

	print(sys.exc_info()[1])
	p = pdb.Pdb(nosigint=True)
	p.reset()
	p.interaction(None, sys.exc_info()[2])

But, I think it is a minor thing.

Looks like I've misunderstood the long time goal of sys.exc_info refactorings. Thanks a lot for the feedback!

[iritkatriel]

In the long term we will want to not have the triplet, but this is a process that will take a few python versions to complete (when 3.11 is the oldest supported version). And it is not going to be simple.

In the meantime, where there is an advantage to removing exc_info because the code would be simplified or something else is changing nearby, we can do it. But I wouldn't remove exc_info just for the sake of it - such code churn makes it hard to backport other changes.