diff --git a/bitbake/lib/bb/exceptions.py b/bitbake/lib/bb/exceptions.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f182c8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bitbake/lib/bb/exceptions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+import inspect
+import traceback
+import bb.namedtuple_with_abc
+from collections import namedtuple
+
+
+class TracebackEntry(namedtuple.abc):
+    """Pickleable representation of a traceback entry"""
+    _fields = 'filename lineno function args code_context index'
+    _header = '  File "{0.filename}", line {0.lineno}, in {0.function}{0.args}'
+
+    def format(self, formatter=None):
+        if not self.code_context:
+            return self._header.format(self) + '\n'
+
+        formatted = [self._header.format(self) + ':\n']
+
+        for lineindex, line in enumerate(self.code_context):
+            if formatter:
+                line = formatter(line)
+
+            if lineindex == self.index:
+                formatted.append('    >%s' % line)
+            else:
+                formatted.append('     %s' % line)
+        return formatted
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return ''.join(self.format())
+
+def _get_frame_args(frame):
+    """Get the formatted arguments and class (if available) for a frame"""
+    arginfo = inspect.getargvalues(frame)
+
+    try:
+        if not arginfo.args:
+            return '', None
+    # There have been reports from the field of python 2.6 which doesn't 
+    # return a namedtuple here but simply a tuple so fallback gracefully if
+    # args isn't present.
+    except AttributeError:
+        return '', None
+
+    firstarg = arginfo.args[0]
+    if firstarg == 'self':
+        self = arginfo.locals['self']
+        cls = self.__class__.__name__
+
+        arginfo.args.pop(0)
+        del arginfo.locals['self']
+    else:
+        cls = None
+
+    formatted = inspect.formatargvalues(*arginfo)
+    return formatted, cls
+
+def extract_traceback(tb, context=1):
+    frames = inspect.getinnerframes(tb, context)
+    for frame, filename, lineno, function, code_context, index in frames:
+        formatted_args, cls = _get_frame_args(frame)
+        if cls:
+            function = '%s.%s' % (cls, function)
+        yield TracebackEntry(filename, lineno, function, formatted_args,
+                             code_context, index)
+
+def format_extracted(extracted, formatter=None, limit=None):
+    if limit:
+        extracted = extracted[-limit:]
+
+    formatted = []
+    for tracebackinfo in extracted:
+        formatted.extend(tracebackinfo.format(formatter))
+    return formatted
+
+
+def format_exception(etype, value, tb, context=1, limit=None, formatter=None):
+    formatted = ['Traceback (most recent call last):\n']
+
+    if hasattr(tb, 'tb_next'):
+        tb = extract_traceback(tb, context)
+
+    formatted.extend(format_extracted(tb, formatter, limit))
+    formatted.extend(traceback.format_exception_only(etype, value))
+    return formatted
+
+def to_string(exc):
+    if isinstance(exc, SystemExit):
+        if not isinstance(exc.code, basestring):
+            return 'Exited with "%d"' % exc.code
+    return str(exc)