diff -r 684b75600fa9 Lib/traceback.py
--- a/Lib/traceback.py	Tue Mar 19 17:22:51 2013 -0700
+++ b/Lib/traceback.py	Tue Mar 19 19:39:47 2013 -0700
@@ -50,25 +50,7 @@
     'file' should be an open file or file-like object with a write()
     method.
     """
-    if file is None:
-        file = sys.stderr
-    if limit is None:
-        if hasattr(sys, 'tracebacklimit'):
-            limit = sys.tracebacklimit
-    n = 0
-    while tb is not None and (limit is None or n < limit):
-        f = tb.tb_frame
-        lineno = tb.tb_lineno
-        co = f.f_code
-        filename = co.co_filename
-        name = co.co_name
-        _print(file,
-               '  File "%s", line %d, in %s' % (filename, lineno, name))
-        linecache.checkcache(filename)
-        line = linecache.getline(filename, lineno, f.f_globals)
-        if line: _print(file, '    ' + line.strip())
-        tb = tb.tb_next
-        n = n+1
+    _get_tb(tb, limit, should_print=True, output=file)
 
 def format_tb(tb, limit=None):
     """A shorthand for 'format_list(extract_stack(f, limit))."""
@@ -85,10 +67,17 @@
     leading and trailing whitespace stripped; if the source is not
     available it is None.
     """
+    return _get_tb(tb, limit, should_print=False)
+
+def _get_tb(tb, limit=None, should_print=False, output=None):
+    if should_print and output is None:
+        output = sys.stderr
+
     if limit is None:
         if hasattr(sys, 'tracebacklimit'):
             limit = sys.tracebacklimit
-    list = []
+
+    lines = []
     n = 0
     while tb is not None and (limit is None or n < limit):
         f = tb.tb_frame
@@ -96,15 +85,21 @@
         co = f.f_code
         filename = co.co_filename
         name = co.co_name
+        if should_print:
+            _print(output,
+                   '  File "%s", line %d, in %s' % (filename, lineno, name))
         linecache.checkcache(filename)
         line = linecache.getline(filename, lineno, f.f_globals)
-        if line: line = line.strip()
-        else: line = None
-        list.append((filename, lineno, name, line))
+        if line:
+            line = line.strip()
+            if should_print:
+                _print(output, '    ' + line)
+        else:
+            line = None
+        lines.append((filename, lineno, name, line))
         tb = tb.tb_next
-        n = n+1
-    return list
-
+        n = n + 1
+    return lines
 
 _cause_message = (
     "\nThe above exception was the direct cause "