diff -r adcd9131b7c6 Lib/test/test_sys.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_sys.py	Fri Dec 09 00:41:46 2016 +0100
+++ b/Lib/test/test_sys.py	Mon Jan 02 10:27:17 2017 +0530
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 except ImportError:
     threading = None
 
+
 class SysModuleTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
@@ -833,6 +834,25 @@
         self.assertIsInstance(level, int)
         self.assertGreater(level, 0)
 
+    def test_sys_tracebacklimit(self):
+        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", '1/0'],
+                             stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        out = p.communicate()[1].strip()
+        traceback = b'  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>'
+        self.assertTrue(traceback in out)
+
+        sys.tracebacklimit = 0
+        code = textwrap.dedent("""
+        import sys
+
+        sys.tracebacklimit = 0
+
+        1 / 0""")
+        p = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-c", code],
+                             stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+        out = p.communicate()[1].strip()
+        self.assertFalse(traceback in out)
+
 
 @test.support.cpython_only
 class SizeofTest(unittest.TestCase):
diff -r adcd9131b7c6 Python/traceback.c
--- a/Python/traceback.c	Fri Dec 09 00:41:46 2016 +0100
+++ b/Python/traceback.c	Mon Jan 02 10:27:17 2017 +0530
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-
 /* Traceback implementation */
 
 #include "Python.h"
@@ -489,7 +488,7 @@
 
         PyErr_Fetch(&exc_type, &exc_value, &exc_tb);
         limit = PyLong_AsLong(limitv);
-        if (limit == -1 && PyErr_Occurred()) {
+        if (PyErr_Occurred()) {
             if (PyErr_ExceptionMatches(PyExc_OverflowError)) {
                 limit = PyTraceBack_LIMIT;
             }
@@ -500,9 +499,6 @@
                 return 0;
             }
         }
-        else if (limit <= 0) {
-            limit = PyTraceBack_LIMIT;
-        }
         PyErr_Restore(exc_type, exc_value, exc_tb);
     }
     err = PyFile_WriteString("Traceback (most recent call last):\n", f);
@@ -820,4 +816,3 @@
 
     return NULL;
 }
-