When I get a runtime exception from the standard library, it's almost always a problem in my code and not in the library code. Is there a way to truncate the exception stack trace so that it doesn't show the guts of the library package? For example, I would like to get this: Traceback (most recent call last): File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 71, in <module> main() File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 66, in main create() File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 41, in create headver1[depotFile]=rev TypeError: Data values must be of type string or None. and not this: Traceback (most recent call last): File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 71, in <module> main() File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 66, in main create() File "./lmd3-mkhead.py", line 41, in create headver1[depotFile]=rev File "/usr/anim/modsquad/oses/fc11/lib/python2.6/bsddb/__init__.py", line 276, in __setitem__ _DeadlockWrap(wrapF) # self.db[key] = value File "/usr/anim/modsquad/oses/fc11/lib/python2.6/bsddb/dbutils.py", line 68, in DeadlockWrap return function(*_args, **_kwargs) File "/usr/anim/modsquad/oses/fc11/lib/python2.6/bsddb/__init__.py", line 275, in wrapF self.db[key] = value TypeError: Data values must be of type string or None. update: added an answer with the code, thanks to the pointer from Alex. Continue reading...