all, I'm writing a function meant to print out the context of a given function call when executed - for example: 1. def main(): 2. 3. _st = stack_trace_closure("/path/to/log") 4. _st() 5. _st() would print out /path/to/file.py:4 /path/to/file.py:5 for each line when executed. Basic idea is to create a closure and associate that closure with a filename, then run that closure to print to the log without needing to give the filename over and over again. So far so good. But when I write this function, the frames given by getframeinfo or extract_stack skip the actual calling point of the function, instead giving back the *point where the closure was defined*. (in the above example, it would print /path/to/file.py:3, /path/to/file.py:3 instead of incrementing to show 4 and 5). However, when I insert a pdb statement, it gives me the expected calling frame where _st is actually called. What's going on here? It looks an awful lot like a bug to me, like an extra frame is being optimized out of of the closure's stack prematurely. I've tried this in python2.7 and python3.3, both show this. thanks much for any info, Ed code follows: --- def stack_trace_closure(message, file_name=None, frame=3): fh = open(file_name, "w+") def _helper(): return stack_trace(message, frame, fh) return _helper def stack_trace(message _frame, fh): _bt = traceback.extract_stack() fh.write( "%s:%s - %s" % (_bt[_frame][0], _bt[_frame][1], _message))