exception - Python: Getting a traceback from a multiprocessing.Process

Question

I am trying to get hold of a traceback object from a multiprocessing.Process. Unfortunately passing the exception info through a pipe does not work because traceback objects can not be pickled:

def foo(pipe_to_parent):
    try:
        raise Exception('xxx')
    except:
        pipe_to_parent.send(sys.exc_info())

to_child, to_self = multiprocessing.Pipe()
process = multiprocessing.Process(target = foo, args = (to_self,))
process.start()
exc_info = to_child.recv()
process.join()
print traceback.format_exception(*exc_info)
to_child.close()
to_self.close()

Traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/process.py", line 231, in _bootstrap
    self.run()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/multiprocessing/process.py", line 88, in run
    self._target(*self._args, **self._kwargs)
  File "foo", line 7, in foo
    to_parent.send(sys.exc_info())
PicklingError: Can't pickle <type 'traceback'>: attribute lookup __builtin__.traceback failed

Is there another way to access the exception info? I'd like to avoid passing the formatted string.

Answer 1

Using tblib you can pass wrapped exceptions and reraise them later:

import tblib.pickling_support
tblib.pickling_support.install()

from multiprocessing import Pool
import sys


class ExceptionWrapper(object):

    def __init__(self, ee):
        self.ee = ee
        __, __, self.tb = sys.exc_info()

    def re_raise(self):
        raise self.ee.with_traceback(self.tb)
        # for Python 2 replace the previous line by:
        # raise self.ee, None, self.tb


# example of how to use ExceptionWrapper

def inverse(i):
    """ will fail for i == 0 """
    try:
        return 1.0 / i
    except Exception as e:
        return ExceptionWrapper(e)


def main():
    p = Pool(1)
    results = p.map(inverse, [0, 1, 2, 3])
    for result in results:
        if isinstance(result, ExceptionWrapper):
            result.re_raise()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

So, if you catch an exception in your remote process, wrap it with ExceptionWrapper and then pass it back. Calling re_raise() in the main process will do the work.