Consistent documentation for the ClientError

The ClientError is now (I think?) the gateway to most AWS service exceptions. The documentation around it is not very clear.

Here, we’re checking [‘Error’][‘Code’] for the string 'InvalidInstanceID.NotFound':

from botocore.exceptions import ClientError

ec2 = session.get_client('ec2', 'us-west-2')
try:
    parsed = ec2.describe_instances(InstanceIds=['i-badid'])
except ClientError as e:
    logger.error("Received error: %s", e, exc_info=True)
    # Only worry about a specific service error code
    if e.response['Error']['Code'] == 'InvalidInstanceID.NotFound':
        raise

Here we’re checking it for the string "404". Note int() will throw if any other error is present in that field.

import botocore
bucket = s3.Bucket('mybucket')
exists = True
try:
    s3.meta.client.head_bucket(Bucket='mybucket')
except botocore.exceptions.ClientError as e:
    # If a client error is thrown, then check that it was a 404 error.
    # If it was a 404 error, then the bucket does not exist.
    error_code = int(e.response['Error']['Code'])
    if error_code == 404:
        exists = False

• Can you provide more guidance on what the field in Error.Code looks like, and how this matches up with exceptions mentioned (but not linked ) in the documentation like LimitExceededException?
• Is Error.Code guaranteed to always exist for a ClientError, or do I need another level of try/catch error wrapping around that?
• What other fields exist on ClientError.response, besides Error ?

[markddavidoff]

If anyone else ends up here looking for a list of error codes, the ClientError.response['Error']['Code'] error codes come from the aws sdk and can be found here

[lenucksi]

👍

Also a clear documentation of every possible exception dict content at best linked from or included at the location where the said content may occur would be very helpful.

I would also find it very appreciable if you could provide proper, exception classes per service and exception instead of the dict approach. That would allow to use try in a more precise, pythonic way without catching the ClientError blank and then wading around in Exception details.