Library for converting a traceback to its exception?

Question

Hi everyone!
Just a curiosity: is there an already-coded way to convert a printed traceback back to the exception that generated it? :) Or to a sys.exc_info-like structure?

Answer 1

Converting a traceback to the exception object wouldn't be too hard, given common exception classes (parse the last line for the exception class and the arguments given to it at instantiation.) The traceback object (the third argument returned by sys.exc_info()) is an entirely different matter, though. The traceback object actually contains the chain of frame objects that constituted the stack at the time of the exception. Including local variables, global variables, et cetera. It is impossible to recreate that just from the displayed traceback.

The best you could do would be to parse each 'File "X", line N, in Y:' line and create fake frame objects that are almost entirely empty. There would be very little value in it, as basically the only thing you would be able to do with it would be to print it. What are you trying to accomplish?