PEP8: Do not use bare except

[cclauss]

% ruff check --select=E722 --output-format=concise

lib/helpers.py:35:5: E722 Do not use bare `except`
lib/helpers.py:45:5: E722 Do not use bare `except`
lib/helpers.py:55:5: E722 Do not use bare `except`
loki.py:568:9: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:33:9: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:37:9: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:41:9: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:45:9: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:53:13: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:60:13: E722 Do not use bare `except`
plugins/loki-plugin-wmi.py:67:13: E722 Do not use bare `except`
Found 11 errors.

% ruff rule E722

bare-except (E722)

Derived from the pycodestyle linter.

What it does

Checks for bare except catches in try-except statements.

Why is this bad?

A bare except catches BaseException which includes
KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit, Exception, and others. Catching
BaseException can make it hard to interrupt the program (e.g., with
Ctrl-C) and can disguise other problems.

Example

try:
    raise KeyboardInterrupt("You probably don't mean to break CTRL-C.")
except:
    print("But a bare `except` will ignore keyboard interrupts.")

Use instead:

try:
    do_something_that_might_break()
except MoreSpecificException as e:
    handle_error(e)

If you actually need to catch an unknown error, use Exception which will
catch regular program errors but not important system exceptions.

def run_a_function(some_other_fn):
    try:
        some_other_fn()
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"How exceptional! {e}")

References

• Python documentation: Exception hierarchy
• Google Python Style Guide: "Exceptions"