id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
19923	traceback handling in management commands	nkryptic	nobody	"The default behavior for management commands to suppress tracebacks, unless the `--traceback` option is provide can lead to confusion.  While the single-line `CommandError` output is superb, both in it's simplicity and accuracy and the output for other errors raised directly in the management commands are generally clear, the output for errors occurring elsewhere leave users wondering what to do.

For example, runserver provides some clear error messages:

  $ ./manage.py runserver hostname.example.com
  ...
  CommandError: ""hostname.example.com"" is not a valid port number or address:port pair.

or:

  $ ./manage.py runserver 80
  ...
  Error: You don't have permission to access that port.


Now, see what happens when I make a mistake in my code:

  $ ./manage.py shell
  ...
  ImportError: cannot import name model

So, I left the `s` of `models` somewhere in my code, but I have no idea where.  Oddly enough, the runserver command will provide a traceback without needing `--traceback`:

  $ ./manage.py runserver
  Validating models...  
  Unhandled exception in thread started by <bound method Command.inner_run of <django.contrib.staticfiles.management.commands.runserver.Command object at 0x101d7e310>>
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  File ""/home/me/projects/testproject/testapp/views.py"", line 5, in <module>
    from . import model
  ImportError: cannot import name model

Over the past few weeks, the number of times that I've helped someone by simply introducing them to the use of `--traceback` on #django was a shock.

Here are some options to consider which may improve this situation:

1. Always display the tracebacks.  The concise messages provided from `CommandError` will still be displayed at the end, although the length of the traceback may diminish the visibility of it. This would lead to the deprecation of the `--traceback` option.

2. If `--traceback` isn't provided when running a command, append something like the following after the pretty error is displayed:

      add --traceback to the prior command to display more information about the error

3. Introduce users to `--traceback` usage early.  Perhaps a subsection in the tutorial discussing that everyone will make mistakes writing code and how you would go about debugging them in with Django?

4. Update the management commands to wrap all localized errors with `CommandError` and the format the display of all `CommandError`s without any traceback.  Any other error raised would always be formatted and displayed with it's traceback.  This also would lead to the deprecation of the `--traceback` option.


I'm in favor of simply always displaying the tracebacks.  I'm not sure how feasible !#4 would be, but if it is possible and straightforward to do, that would be even better.
"	Cleanup/optimization	closed	Core (Management commands)	dev	Normal	fixed		nkryptic@…	Accepted	1	0	0	0	1	0