[3.12] gh-129407: Clarify that a `SystemError` isn't always CPython's fault (GH-12941...

gh-129407: Clarify that a `SystemError` isn't always CPython's fault (GH-129410)
(cherry picked from commit 39b754a35976924f6df46cd475e889bcf8598ca1)

Co-authored-by: Peter Bierma <zintensitydev@gmail.com>

diff --git a/Doc/library/exceptions.rst b/Doc/library/exceptions.rst
index 537547f6c9c5caee6f6dd3724867a4a54d30ce3e..7e0c0f05bb7156d38bf6c5c73bf56539d01c05d4 100644 (file)
--- a/Doc/library/exceptions.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/exceptions.rst
@@ -544,9 +544,13 @@ The following exceptions are the exceptions that are usually raised.
 
    Raised when the interpreter finds an internal error, but the situation does not
    look so serious to cause it to abandon all hope. The associated value is a
-   string indicating what went wrong (in low-level terms).
+   string indicating what went wrong (in low-level terms). In :term:`CPython`,
+   this could be raised by incorrectly using Python's C API, such as returning
+   a ``NULL`` value without an exception set.
 
-   You should report this to the author or maintainer of your Python interpreter.
+   If you're confident that this exception wasn't your fault, or the fault of
+   a package you're using, you should report this to the author or maintainer
+   of your Python interpreter.
    Be sure to report the version of the Python interpreter (``sys.version``; it is
    also printed at the start of an interactive Python session), the exact error
    message (the exception's associated value) and if possible the source of the