Turns out, rate limiting is it's own exception

raven/base.py

@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 import raven
 from raven.conf import defaults
 from raven.context import Context
-from raven.exceptions import APIError
+from raven.exceptions import APIError, RateLimited
 from raven.utils import six, json, get_versions, get_auth_header, merge_dicts
 from raven.utils.encoding import to_unicode
 from raven.utils.serializer import transform
@@ -527,13 +527,11 @@ def _successful_send(self):
     def _failed_send(self, e, url, data):
         retry_after = 0
         if isinstance(e, APIError):
+            if isinstance(e, RateLimited):
+                retry_after = e.retry_after
             self.error_logger.error('Unable to capture event: %s', e.message)
         elif isinstance(e, HTTPError):
             body = e.read()
-            try:
-                retry_after = int(e.headers.get('Retry-After'))
-            except (ValueError, TypeError):
-                pass
             self.error_logger.error(
                 'Unable to reach Sentry log server: %s (url: %s, body: %s)',
                 e, url, body, exc_info=True,

raven/exceptions.py

@@ -13,4 +13,6 @@ def __unicode__(self):
 
 
 class RateLimited(APIError):
-    pass
+    def __init__(self, message, retry_after=0):
+        self.retry_after = retry_after
+        super(RateLimited, self).__init__(message, 429)

raven/transport/http.py

@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ def send(self, data, headers):
             msg = exc.headers.get('x-sentry-error')
             code = exc.getcode()
             if code == 429:
-                raise RateLimited(msg, code)
+                retry_after = int(exc.headers.get('retry-after', 0))
+                raise RateLimited(msg, retry_after)
             elif msg:
                 raise APIError(msg, code)
             else:

tests/base/tests.py

@@ -8,11 +8,11 @@
 import time
 from socket import socket, AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM
 from raven.base import Client, ClientState
+from raven.exceptions import RateLimited
 from raven.transport import AsyncTransport
 from raven.utils.stacks import iter_stack_frames
 from raven.utils import six
 from raven.utils.testutils import TestCase
-from raven.utils.compat import HTTPError
 
 
 class TempStoreClient(Client):
@@ -122,12 +122,8 @@ def test_send_remote_failover_with_retry_after(self, should_try, send):
             dsn='sync+http://public:[email protected]/1'
         )
 
-        e = HTTPError(
-            'http://example.com/api/store', 429, 'oops',
-            {'Retry-After': '5'}, six.StringIO())
-
         # test error
-        send.side_effect = e
+        send.side_effect = RateLimited('foo', 5)
         client.send_remote('sync+http://example.com/api/store', 'foo')
         self.assertEquals(client.state.status, client.state.ERROR)
         self.assertEqual(client.state.retry_after, 5)