python / python/cpython

doctest: Allow checking for Traceback context errors

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type-feature
Dominant language
Python
Stars
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Forks
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PR merge metrics
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Description

Feature or enhancement

Proposal:

If the error thrown in a doctest command is a ValueError, and that error object has a __context__ of RuntimeError, it would be nice to be able to do this:

>>> function_that_raises()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
RuntimeError

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
ValueError

And a similar thing for __cause__ but with the different line of text in the middle.

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

I have already discussed this feature proposal on Discourse

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

I did make a discourse post, but it only got a like and no comments :)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the doctest traceback-checking implementation and its existing tests; the issue provides no file paths. Reproduce the shown context case and compare it with the proposed cause variant, then add coverage for the requested intermediate traceback text and verify the doctest output.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
testing-qa
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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