Python exceptions: is there a way to find the exception attributes?

[Pat Notz]

> Is there a way to find out about the existence of these attributes 
> without having to read the documentation, using the dir() function or 
> something else?

You can also cast the exception into a string which -- if the
exception class is properly designed -- should give you useful
information.  For example:

try:
    open('/foo.bar')
except Exception, e:
    print 'Exception occurred: %s' % str(e)

That's not exactly what you were asking for but maybe it'll help.