Thanks for the feedback. What do you think of refactoring the common block (also used in other places) into a method? + except: + exc_info = sys.exc_info()[:2] + self.error(traceback.format_exception_only(*exc_info)[-1].strip()) This could/should be done separately probably then, just want your opinion on it. This would also allow to customize/override it in a single place then (e.g. with pdbpp I am displaying tracebacks for errors, which is done via error() currently then).