Exception type too broad in error handling
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- Dominant language
- Python
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Description
Bug Report
Description
Some except clauses catch overly broad exception types (e.g., bare except: or except Exception:), which can accidentally swallow important errors like KeyboardInterrupt or SystemExit.
Example
# Problematic:
try:
do_something()
except: # catches EVERYTHING including KeyboardInterrupt
pass
# Better:
try:
do_something()
except ValueError as e:
logger.warning(f"Value error: {e}")
Expected Behavior
Exception handlers should catch only the specific exceptions they know how to handle.
Impact
- Makes it impossible to interrupt the program with Ctrl+C in some cases
- Hides unexpected errors that should be investigated
- Makes debugging significantly harder
Suggested Fix
Replace broad except clauses with specific exception types wherever possible.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No files, tests, or entry points are identified. Start by searching the Python source for bare except: and except Exception: clauses, then inspect each handler to determine which failures it intentionally handles. Done means replacing only justified broad catches with specific exception types and adding or updating coverage for the affected behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100