CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
rodee
rodee

Reputation: 3151

python shutil.rmtree to print error if any

if os.path.exists(temp_dir):
    print "Deleting ", temp_dir
    try:
        shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)
    except:
        raise
print "Delete complete"

it prints "Deleting c:\temp\metabuild" but neither prints any error nor "Delete complete", obviously the rmtree failed, but want it to print what the error is, will "raise" print what the error is or no? thanks in advance!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 7575

Answers (1)

abarnert
abarnert

Reputation: 365707

will "raise" print what the error is or no?

No, all raise does is re-raise the exception, as if you hadn't caught it in the first place. In particular, this code:

try:
    shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)
except:
    raise

… is guaranteed to do the same thing (except slightly slower and a lot less readably) as:

shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)

If the exception ultimately propagates up to the top level without being handled anywhere, Python will print a traceback and exit. But if some other code handles the exception anywhere on the chain, it can do anything it wants.

If you want to print the exception out, you have to do that explicitly. For example:

try:
    shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)
except Exception as e:
    print(e)
    raise

If you want more information than print(e) or print(repr(e)) gives you, see the traceback library, which has all kinds of functions for retrieving or dumping information about the exception and its traceback. In particular, to get the same output you would have gotten if this happened at the top level, do this:

try:
    shutil.rmtree(temp_dir)
except Exception as e:
    traceback.print_exc()
    raise

Because print_exc gets the exception object and other info directly out of Python's guts, you don't really need the except Exception as e: here; you could just use except Exception: or except:.

Upvotes: 3

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