A flake8 extension that checks for blind, catch-all except:
statements.
Using except
without explicitly specifying which exceptions to catch is generally considered bad practice, since it catches system signals like SIGINT
. You probably want to handle system interrupts differently than exceptions occuring in your code.
It's also usually better style to have many small try
-except
blocks catching specific exceptions instead of a giant try:
block with a catch-all except:
at the bottom. It's also nicer to your fellow programmers to be a bit more specific about what exceptions they can expect in specific parts of the code, and what the proper course of action is when they occur.
An example of code that will fail this check is:
try:
something_scary()
except:
everybody_panic()
However, the following code is valid:
try:
something_terrifying()
except TerrifyingException:
dont_panic()
If you don't already have it, install flake8
:
$ pip install flake8
Then, install the extension:
$ pip install flake8-blind-except
Run the following to verify that the plugin has been installed correctly:
$ flake8 --version 2.0 (pep8: 1.4.6, flake8-blind-except: 0.1.0, pyflakes: 0.7.3)
Now, when you run flake8
, the plugin will automatically be used.
When a blind except is found, flake8
will output:
B901 blind except: statement
I'm not working on Python these days, so probably won't be making updates anytime soon. PRs are welcome though!
pep8
was renamed topycodestyle
in its 2.0 release. Compatibility update for this change
- Initial release
I've tested this package with flake8 2.6.2 and Python 2.7.3. It is untested (but likely compatible) with other software versions.