Custom Error Handling with Python's Logging Module

Ensuring that uncaught exceptions are properly handled and logged can be crucial for troubleshooting and maintaining the stability of a Python application. While manually catching and logging exceptions is a viable approach, it can be tedious and error-prone.

To address this issue, Python allows you to override the default exception handling mechanism and redirect uncaught exceptions to the logging module. This provides a convenient and systematic way to capture and log detailed exception information.

Solution

The problem presented can be solved by modifying the global sys.excepthook function. By defining a custom exception handler, you can intercept all uncaught exceptions and handle them as desired. Here's a complete and robust example:

import sys
import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
handler = logging.StreamHandler(stream=sys.stdout)
logger.addHandler(handler)

def handle_exception(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback):
    # Ignore KeyboardInterrupt so the application can exit with Ctrl   C
    if issubclass(exc_type, KeyboardInterrupt):
        sys.__excepthook__(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback)
        return

    # Log the uncaught exception
    logger.error("Uncaught exception", exc_info=(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback))

sys.excepthook = handle_exception

# Example code to test the custom exception handling
if __name__ == "__main__":
    raise RuntimeError("Test unhandled")

Explanation

This code:

• Defines a custom exception handler, handle_exception, which is invoked when an uncaught exception occurs.
• Ignores KeyboardInterrupt (Ctrl C) to allow the application to exit gracefully.
• Logs the uncaught exception using the logging module's error() method.
• Attaches the custom exception handler to the sys.excepthook function.
• Raises a runtime error to demonstrate the custom error handling.

When an uncaught exception is raised, the custom exception handler intervenes and logs the exception details to the configured handler. In this case, the default stream handler is used to output the exception information to stdout.

Additional Features

The example also includes a few optional features:

• Filtering: Ignore certain types of exceptions (e.g., KeyboardInterrupt) by using subclass checking.
• Customization: Modify the logging handler or use multiple handlers to control the output format and destination of the exception logs.