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raise-without-from-inside-except (B904)

Added in v0.0.138 · Related issues · View source

Derived from the flake8-bugbear linter.

What it does

Checks for raise statements in exception handlers that lack a from clause.

Why is this bad?

In Python, raise can be used with or without an exception from which the current exception is derived. This is known as exception chaining. When printing the stack trace, chained exceptions are displayed in such a way so as make it easier to trace the exception back to its root cause.

When raising an exception from within an except clause, always include a from clause to facilitate exception chaining. If the exception is not chained, it will be difficult to trace the exception back to its root cause.

Example

try:
    ...
except FileNotFoundError:
    if ...:
        raise RuntimeError("...")
    else:
        raise UserWarning("...")

Use instead:

try:
    ...
except FileNotFoundError as exc:
    if ...:
        raise RuntimeError("...") from None
    else:
        raise UserWarning("...") from exc

References