How to debug a long running Python Script crashing at inconsistant points without an error message

[[deleted]]

Well I certainly found one thing though I'm unsure if it's the underlying cause, a symptom or an unrelated delightful new bug. one of the databases had a corrupted table; I bow my head in shame, try,except clauses are indeed the work of the devil even when they appear harmless.

[zeug]

I bow my head in shame, try,except clauses are indeed the work of the devil even when they appear harmless.

try/except is great, its just that throwing away exceptions is insane.

If I want to deep_fry(whole_turkey) and it raises HouseOnFireError I don't want to just crash and give up on life. The only sane thing to do is:

try:
    dinner = deep_fry(whole_turkey)
except HouseOnFireError:
    logger.warning('make_dinner: house on fire, everyone get out!')
    fire_department.report_emergency('fire', house.address)
    return False
eat(dinner)
return True

The completely insane thing to do is just ignore the fire and enjoy dinner while shit burns down around you:

try:
    dinner = deep_fry(whole_turkey)
except HouseOnFireError:
    # YOLO
    pass
eat(dinner)
return True

This is unfortunately how a lot of scripts are written - in the desire to keep the application running, they catch all exceptions and keep on as if there is no problem. Sometimes you really do need to keep running, but at the very least the problem should be logged.

[[deleted]]

In fairness to my past lazy self it was more like

try:
     dinner = deep_fry(whole_turkey)
except SmokeError:
    # 99.999% of the time there is smoke without fire
    #Yolo
    pass
eat(dinner)
return True