python / python/mypy

Detect unreachable `except` branches

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#11,514 5 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature topic-reachability
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Since except blocks are checked in order, and the first matching block is executed, it's possible to accidentally write a try-except that will never execute some branches. For example:

def bad_reader(path: str) -> bytes:
    if path == "bad":
        raise PermissionError

    with open(path, "rb") as f:
        return f.read()


def load_data(path: str) -> bytes:
    try:
        return bad_reader(path)
    except OSError:
        print("OSError caught")
    except PermissionError:
        # This branch will never be hit, since `OSError` will always catch
        # permission error
        print("PermissionError caught")

    return b""


load_data("bad")

Since PermissionError is a subclass of OSError, the except PermissionError case will never execute. I'd expect/hope that these kind of mistakes would be detectable with type information. I think adding checks for this would make sense under the --warn-unreachable config flag, so a new CLI option may not be needed.

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue identifies the existing --warn-unreachable configuration as the intended entry point. Investigate how mypy checks exception types and define completion as reporting a later handler subsumed by an earlier handler, with coverage for the PermissionError/OSError ordering example.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
devtools
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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