Index: Lib/traceback.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/traceback.py	(revision 83379)
+++ Lib/traceback.py	(working copy)
@@ -135,7 +135,8 @@
             yield x
 
 
-def print_exception(etype, value, tb, limit=None, file=None, chain=True):
+def print_exception(etype, value, tb, limit=None, file=None, chain=True,
+                    fullstack=False):
     """Print exception up to 'limit' stack trace entries from 'tb' to 'file'.
 
     This differs from print_tb() in the following ways: (1) if
@@ -144,7 +145,9 @@
     stack trace; (3) if type is SyntaxError and value has the
     appropriate format, it prints the line where the syntax error
     occurred with a caret on the next line indicating the approximate
-    position of the error.
+    position of the error (4) if fullstack is True it prefixes the
+    traceback with the print_stack, thus giving a 'full' traceback from
+    the top of the interpreter stack.
     """
     if file is None:
         file = sys.stderr
@@ -152,12 +155,21 @@
         values = _iter_chain(value, tb)
     else:
         values = [(value, tb)]
+    if fullstack and tb.tb_frame.f_back:
+        _print(file, 'Traceback (most recent call last):')
+        print_stack(tb.tb_frame.f_back, file=file)
+        printheader = False
+    else:
+        printheader = True
     for value, tb in values:
         if isinstance(value, str):
             _print(file, value)
             continue
         if tb:
-            _print(file, 'Traceback (most recent call last):')
+            if printheader:
+                _print(file, 'Traceback (most recent call last):')
+            else:
+                printheader = True
             print_tb(tb, limit, file)
         lines = format_exception_only(type(value), value)
         for line in lines: