1:mod:`warnings` --- Warning control
2===================================
3
4.. module:: warnings
5   :synopsis: Issue warning messages and control their disposition.
6
7**Source code:** :source:`Lib/warnings.py`
8
9.. index:: single: warnings
10
11--------------
12
13Warning messages are typically issued in situations where it is useful to alert
14the user of some condition in a program, where that condition (normally) doesn't
15warrant raising an exception and terminating the program.  For example, one
16might want to issue a warning when a program uses an obsolete module.
17
18Python programmers issue warnings by calling the :func:`warn` function defined
19in this module.  (C programmers use :c:func:`PyErr_WarnEx`; see
20:ref:`exceptionhandling` for details).
21
22Warning messages are normally written to :data:`sys.stderr`, but their disposition
23can be changed flexibly, from ignoring all warnings to turning them into
24exceptions.  The disposition of warnings can vary based on the :ref:`warning category
25<warning-categories>`, the text of the warning message, and the source location where it
26is issued.  Repetitions of a particular warning for the same source location are
27typically suppressed.
28
29There are two stages in warning control: first, each time a warning is issued, a
30determination is made whether a message should be issued or not; next, if a
31message is to be issued, it is formatted and printed using a user-settable hook.
32
33The determination whether to issue a warning message is controlled by the
34:ref:`warning filter <warning-filter>`, which is a sequence of matching rules and actions. Rules can be
35added to the filter by calling :func:`filterwarnings` and reset to its default
36state by calling :func:`resetwarnings`.
37
38The printing of warning messages is done by calling :func:`showwarning`, which
39may be overridden; the default implementation of this function formats the
40message by calling :func:`formatwarning`, which is also available for use by
41custom implementations.
42
43.. seealso::
44   :func:`logging.captureWarnings` allows you to handle all warnings with
45   the standard logging infrastructure.
46
47
48.. _warning-categories:
49
50Warning Categories
51------------------
52
53There are a number of built-in exceptions that represent warning categories.
54This categorization is useful to be able to filter out groups of warnings.
55
56While these are technically
57:ref:`built-in exceptions <warning-categories-as-exceptions>`, they are
58documented here, because conceptually they belong to the warnings mechanism.
59
60User code can define additional warning categories by subclassing one of the
61standard warning categories.  A warning category must always be a subclass of
62the :exc:`Warning` class.
63
64The following warnings category classes are currently defined:
65
66.. tabularcolumns:: |l|p{0.6\linewidth}|
67
68+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
69| Class                            | Description                                   |
70+==================================+===============================================+
71| :exc:`Warning`                   | This is the base class of all warning         |
72|                                  | category classes.  It is a subclass of        |
73|                                  | :exc:`Exception`.                             |
74+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
75| :exc:`UserWarning`               | The default category for :func:`warn`.        |
76+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
77| :exc:`DeprecationWarning`        | Base category for warnings about deprecated   |
78|                                  | features when those warnings are intended for |
79|                                  | other Python developers (ignored by default,  |
80|                                  | unless triggered by code in ``__main__``).    |
81+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
82| :exc:`SyntaxWarning`             | Base category for warnings about dubious      |
83|                                  | syntactic features.                           |
84+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
85| :exc:`RuntimeWarning`            | Base category for warnings about dubious      |
86|                                  | runtime features.                             |
87+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
88| :exc:`FutureWarning`             | Base category for warnings about deprecated   |
89|                                  | features when those warnings are intended for |
90|                                  | end users of applications that are written in |
91|                                  | Python.                                       |
92+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
93| :exc:`PendingDeprecationWarning` | Base category for warnings about features     |
94|                                  | that will be deprecated in the future         |
95|                                  | (ignored by default).                         |
96+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
97| :exc:`ImportWarning`             | Base category for warnings triggered during   |
98|                                  | the process of importing a module (ignored by |
99|                                  | default).                                     |
100+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
101| :exc:`UnicodeWarning`            | Base category for warnings related to         |
102|                                  | Unicode.                                      |
103+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
104| :exc:`BytesWarning`              | Base category for warnings related to         |
105|                                  | :class:`bytes` and :class:`bytearray`.        |
106+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
107| :exc:`ResourceWarning`           | Base category for warnings related to         |
108|                                  | resource usage.                               |
109+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
110
111.. versionchanged:: 3.7
112   Previously :exc:`DeprecationWarning` and :exc:`FutureWarning` were
113   distinguished based on whether a feature was being removed entirely or
114   changing its behaviour. They are now distinguished based on their
115   intended audience and the way they're handled by the default warnings
116   filters.
117
118
119.. _warning-filter:
120
121The Warnings Filter
122-------------------
123
124The warnings filter controls whether warnings are ignored, displayed, or turned
125into errors (raising an exception).
126
127Conceptually, the warnings filter maintains an ordered list of filter
128specifications; any specific warning is matched against each filter
129specification in the list in turn until a match is found; the filter determines
130the disposition of the match.  Each entry is a tuple of the form (*action*,
131*message*, *category*, *module*, *lineno*), where:
132
133* *action* is one of the following strings:
134
135  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
136  | Value         | Disposition                                  |
137  +===============+==============================================+
138  | ``"default"`` | print the first occurrence of matching       |
139  |               | warnings for each location (module +         |
140  |               | line number) where the warning is issued     |
141  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
142  | ``"error"``   | turn matching warnings into exceptions       |
143  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
144  | ``"ignore"``  | never print matching warnings                |
145  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
146  | ``"always"``  | always print matching warnings               |
147  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
148  | ``"module"``  | print the first occurrence of matching       |
149  |               | warnings for each module where the warning   |
150  |               | is issued (regardless of line number)        |
151  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
152  | ``"once"``    | print only the first occurrence of matching  |
153  |               | warnings, regardless of location             |
154  +---------------+----------------------------------------------+
155
156* *message* is a string containing a regular expression that the start of
157  the warning message must match.  The expression is compiled to always be
158  case-insensitive.
159
160* *category* is a class (a subclass of :exc:`Warning`) of which the warning
161  category must be a subclass in order to match.
162
163* *module* is a string containing a regular expression that the module name must
164  match.  The expression is compiled to be case-sensitive.
165
166* *lineno* is an integer that the line number where the warning occurred must
167  match, or ``0`` to match all line numbers.
168
169Since the :exc:`Warning` class is derived from the built-in :exc:`Exception`
170class, to turn a warning into an error we simply raise ``category(message)``.
171
172If a warning is reported and doesn't match any registered filter then the
173"default" action is applied (hence its name).
174
175
176.. _describing-warning-filters:
177
178Describing Warning Filters
179~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
180
181The warnings filter is initialized by :option:`-W` options passed to the Python
182interpreter command line and the :envvar:`PYTHONWARNINGS` environment variable.
183The interpreter saves the arguments for all supplied entries without
184interpretation in :data:`sys.warnoptions`; the :mod:`warnings` module parses these
185when it is first imported (invalid options are ignored, after printing a
186message to :data:`sys.stderr`).
187
188Individual warnings filters are specified as a sequence of fields separated by
189colons::
190
191   action:message:category:module:line
192
193The meaning of each of these fields is as described in :ref:`warning-filter`.
194When listing multiple filters on a single line (as for
195:envvar:`PYTHONWARNINGS`), the individual filters are separated by commas and
196the filters listed later take precedence over those listed before them (as
197they're applied left-to-right, and the most recently applied filters take
198precedence over earlier ones).
199
200Commonly used warning filters apply to either all warnings, warnings in a
201particular category, or warnings raised by particular modules or packages.
202Some examples::
203
204   default                      # Show all warnings (even those ignored by default)
205   ignore                       # Ignore all warnings
206   error                        # Convert all warnings to errors
207   error::ResourceWarning       # Treat ResourceWarning messages as errors
208   default::DeprecationWarning  # Show DeprecationWarning messages
209   ignore,default:::mymodule    # Only report warnings triggered by "mymodule"
210   error:::mymodule[.*]         # Convert warnings to errors in "mymodule"
211                                # and any subpackages of "mymodule"
212
213
214.. _default-warning-filter:
215
216Default Warning Filter
217~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
218
219By default, Python installs several warning filters, which can be overridden by
220the :option:`-W` command-line option, the :envvar:`PYTHONWARNINGS` environment
221variable and calls to :func:`filterwarnings`.
222
223In regular release builds, the default warning filter has the following entries
224(in order of precedence)::
225
226    default::DeprecationWarning:__main__
227    ignore::DeprecationWarning
228    ignore::PendingDeprecationWarning
229    ignore::ImportWarning
230    ignore::ResourceWarning
231
232In debug builds, the list of default warning filters is empty.
233
234.. versionchanged:: 3.2
235   :exc:`DeprecationWarning` is now ignored by default in addition to
236   :exc:`PendingDeprecationWarning`.
237
238.. versionchanged:: 3.7
239  :exc:`DeprecationWarning` is once again shown by default when triggered
240  directly by code in ``__main__``.
241
242.. versionchanged:: 3.7
243  :exc:`BytesWarning` no longer appears in the default filter list and is
244  instead configured via :data:`sys.warnoptions` when :option:`-b` is specified
245  twice.
246
247
248.. _warning-disable:
249
250Overriding the default filter
251~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
252
253Developers of applications written in Python may wish to hide *all* Python level
254warnings from their users by default, and only display them when running tests
255or otherwise working on the application. The :data:`sys.warnoptions` attribute
256used to pass filter configurations to the interpreter can be used as a marker to
257indicate whether or not warnings should be disabled::
258
259    import sys
260
261    if not sys.warnoptions:
262        import warnings
263        warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
264
265Developers of test runners for Python code are advised to instead ensure that
266*all* warnings are displayed by default for the code under test, using code
267like::
268
269    import sys
270
271    if not sys.warnoptions:
272        import os, warnings
273        warnings.simplefilter("default") # Change the filter in this process
274        os.environ["PYTHONWARNINGS"] = "default" # Also affect subprocesses
275
276Finally, developers of interactive shells that run user code in a namespace
277other than ``__main__`` are advised to ensure that :exc:`DeprecationWarning`
278messages are made visible by default, using code like the following (where
279``user_ns`` is the module used to execute code entered interactively)::
280
281    import warnings
282    warnings.filterwarnings("default", category=DeprecationWarning,
283                                       module=user_ns.get("__name__"))
284
285
286.. _warning-suppress:
287
288Temporarily Suppressing Warnings
289--------------------------------
290
291If you are using code that you know will raise a warning, such as a deprecated
292function, but do not want to see the warning (even when warnings have been
293explicitly configured via the command line), then it is possible to suppress
294the warning using the :class:`catch_warnings` context manager::
295
296    import warnings
297
298    def fxn():
299        warnings.warn("deprecated", DeprecationWarning)
300
301    with warnings.catch_warnings():
302        warnings.simplefilter("ignore")
303        fxn()
304
305While within the context manager all warnings will simply be ignored. This
306allows you to use known-deprecated code without having to see the warning while
307not suppressing the warning for other code that might not be aware of its use
308of deprecated code.  Note: this can only be guaranteed in a single-threaded
309application. If two or more threads use the :class:`catch_warnings` context
310manager at the same time, the behavior is undefined.
311
312
313
314.. _warning-testing:
315
316Testing Warnings
317----------------
318
319To test warnings raised by code, use the :class:`catch_warnings` context
320manager. With it you can temporarily mutate the warnings filter to facilitate
321your testing. For instance, do the following to capture all raised warnings to
322check::
323
324    import warnings
325
326    def fxn():
327        warnings.warn("deprecated", DeprecationWarning)
328
329    with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as w:
330        # Cause all warnings to always be triggered.
331        warnings.simplefilter("always")
332        # Trigger a warning.
333        fxn()
334        # Verify some things
335        assert len(w) == 1
336        assert issubclass(w[-1].category, DeprecationWarning)
337        assert "deprecated" in str(w[-1].message)
338
339One can also cause all warnings to be exceptions by using ``error`` instead of
340``always``. One thing to be aware of is that if a warning has already been
341raised because of a ``once``/``default`` rule, then no matter what filters are
342set the warning will not be seen again unless the warnings registry related to
343the warning has been cleared.
344
345Once the context manager exits, the warnings filter is restored to its state
346when the context was entered. This prevents tests from changing the warnings
347filter in unexpected ways between tests and leading to indeterminate test
348results. The :func:`showwarning` function in the module is also restored to
349its original value.  Note: this can only be guaranteed in a single-threaded
350application. If two or more threads use the :class:`catch_warnings` context
351manager at the same time, the behavior is undefined.
352
353When testing multiple operations that raise the same kind of warning, it
354is important to test them in a manner that confirms each operation is raising
355a new warning (e.g. set warnings to be raised as exceptions and check the
356operations raise exceptions, check that the length of the warning list
357continues to increase after each operation, or else delete the previous
358entries from the warnings list before each new operation).
359
360
361.. _warning-ignored:
362
363Updating Code For New Versions of Dependencies
364----------------------------------------------
365
366Warning categories that are primarily of interest to Python developers (rather
367than end users of applications written in Python) are ignored by default.
368
369Notably, this "ignored by default" list includes :exc:`DeprecationWarning`
370(for every module except ``__main__``), which means developers should make sure
371to test their code with typically ignored warnings made visible in order to
372receive timely notifications of future breaking API changes (whether in the
373standard library or third party packages).
374
375In the ideal case, the code will have a suitable test suite, and the test runner
376will take care of implicitly enabling all warnings when running tests
377(the test runner provided by the :mod:`unittest` module does this).
378
379In less ideal cases, applications can be checked for use of deprecated
380interfaces by passing :option:`-Wd <-W>` to the Python interpreter (this is
381shorthand for :option:`!-W default`) or setting ``PYTHONWARNINGS=default`` in
382the environment. This enables default handling for all warnings, including those
383that are ignored by default. To change what action is taken for encountered
384warnings you can change what argument is passed to :option:`-W` (e.g.
385:option:`!-W error`). See the :option:`-W` flag for more details on what is
386possible.
387
388
389.. _warning-functions:
390
391Available Functions
392-------------------
393
394
395.. function:: warn(message, category=None, stacklevel=1, source=None)
396
397   Issue a warning, or maybe ignore it or raise an exception.  The *category*
398   argument, if given, must be a :ref:`warning category class <warning-categories>`; it
399   defaults to :exc:`UserWarning`.  Alternatively, *message* can be a :exc:`Warning` instance,
400   in which case *category* will be ignored and ``message.__class__`` will be used.
401   In this case, the message text will be ``str(message)``. This function raises an
402   exception if the particular warning issued is changed into an error by the
403   :ref:`warnings filter <warning-filter>`.  The *stacklevel* argument can be used by wrapper
404   functions written in Python, like this::
405
406      def deprecation(message):
407          warnings.warn(message, DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
408
409   This makes the warning refer to :func:`deprecation`'s caller, rather than to the
410   source of :func:`deprecation` itself (since the latter would defeat the purpose
411   of the warning message).
412
413   *source*, if supplied, is the destroyed object which emitted a
414   :exc:`ResourceWarning`.
415
416   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
417      Added *source* parameter.
418
419
420.. function:: warn_explicit(message, category, filename, lineno, module=None, registry=None, module_globals=None, source=None)
421
422   This is a low-level interface to the functionality of :func:`warn`, passing in
423   explicitly the message, category, filename and line number, and optionally the
424   module name and the registry (which should be the ``__warningregistry__``
425   dictionary of the module).  The module name defaults to the filename with
426   ``.py`` stripped; if no registry is passed, the warning is never suppressed.
427   *message* must be a string and *category* a subclass of :exc:`Warning` or
428   *message* may be a :exc:`Warning` instance, in which case *category* will be
429   ignored.
430
431   *module_globals*, if supplied, should be the global namespace in use by the code
432   for which the warning is issued.  (This argument is used to support displaying
433   source for modules found in zipfiles or other non-filesystem import
434   sources).
435
436   *source*, if supplied, is the destroyed object which emitted a
437   :exc:`ResourceWarning`.
438
439   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
440      Add the *source* parameter.
441
442
443.. function:: showwarning(message, category, filename, lineno, file=None, line=None)
444
445   Write a warning to a file.  The default implementation calls
446   ``formatwarning(message, category, filename, lineno, line)`` and writes the
447   resulting string to *file*, which defaults to :data:`sys.stderr`.  You may replace
448   this function with any callable by assigning to ``warnings.showwarning``.
449   *line* is a line of source code to be included in the warning
450   message; if *line* is not supplied, :func:`showwarning` will
451   try to read the line specified by *filename* and *lineno*.
452
453
454.. function:: formatwarning(message, category, filename, lineno, line=None)
455
456   Format a warning the standard way.  This returns a string which may contain
457   embedded newlines and ends in a newline.  *line* is a line of source code to
458   be included in the warning message; if *line* is not supplied,
459   :func:`formatwarning` will try to read the line specified by *filename* and
460   *lineno*.
461
462
463.. function:: filterwarnings(action, message='', category=Warning, module='', lineno=0, append=False)
464
465   Insert an entry into the list of :ref:`warnings filter specifications
466   <warning-filter>`.  The entry is inserted at the front by default; if
467   *append* is true, it is inserted at the end.  This checks the types of the
468   arguments, compiles the *message* and *module* regular expressions, and
469   inserts them as a tuple in the list of warnings filters.  Entries closer to
470   the front of the list override entries later in the list, if both match a
471   particular warning.  Omitted arguments default to a value that matches
472   everything.
473
474
475.. function:: simplefilter(action, category=Warning, lineno=0, append=False)
476
477   Insert a simple entry into the list of :ref:`warnings filter specifications
478   <warning-filter>`.  The meaning of the function parameters is as for
479   :func:`filterwarnings`, but regular expressions are not needed as the filter
480   inserted always matches any message in any module as long as the category and
481   line number match.
482
483
484.. function:: resetwarnings()
485
486   Reset the warnings filter.  This discards the effect of all previous calls to
487   :func:`filterwarnings`, including that of the :option:`-W` command line options
488   and calls to :func:`simplefilter`.
489
490
491Available Context Managers
492--------------------------
493
494.. class:: catch_warnings(*, record=False, module=None)
495
496    A context manager that copies and, upon exit, restores the warnings filter
497    and the :func:`showwarning` function.
498    If the *record* argument is :const:`False` (the default) the context manager
499    returns :class:`None` on entry. If *record* is :const:`True`, a list is
500    returned that is progressively populated with objects as seen by a custom
501    :func:`showwarning` function (which also suppresses output to ``sys.stdout``).
502    Each object in the list has attributes with the same names as the arguments to
503    :func:`showwarning`.
504
505    The *module* argument takes a module that will be used instead of the
506    module returned when you import :mod:`warnings` whose filter will be
507    protected. This argument exists primarily for testing the :mod:`warnings`
508    module itself.
509
510    .. note::
511
512        The :class:`catch_warnings` manager works by replacing and
513        then later restoring the module's
514        :func:`showwarning` function and internal list of filter
515        specifications.  This means the context manager is modifying
516        global state and therefore is not thread-safe.
517