Error - Error/exception handling in an OO-ish way
use Error qw(:try);
throw Error::Simple( "A simple error");
sub xyz {
...
record Error::Simple("A simple error")
and return;
}
unlink($file) or throw Error::Simple("$file: $!",$!);
try {
do_some_stuff();
die "error!" if $condition;
throw Error::Simple "Oops!" if $other_condition;
}
catch Error::IO with {
my $E = shift;
print STDERR "File ", $E->{'\-file'}, " had a problem\n";
}
except {
my $E = shift;
my $general_handler=sub {send_message $E->{\-description}};
return {
UserException1 => $general_handler,
UserException2 => $general_handler
};
}
otherwise {
print STDERR "Well I don't know what to say\n";
}
finally {
close_the_garage_door_already(); # Should be reliable
}; # Don't forget the trailing ; or you might be surprised
The Error package provides two interfaces. Firstly Error provides
a procedural interface to exception handling. Secondly Error is a
base class for errors/exceptions that can either be thrown, for
subsequent catch, or can simply be recorded.
Errors in the class Error should not be thrown directly, but the
user should throw errors from a sub-class of Error.
Error exports subroutines to perform exception handling. These will
be exported if the :try tag is used in the use line.
try is the main subroutine called by the user. All other subroutines
exported are clauses to the try subroutine.
The BLOCK will be evaluated and, if no error is throw, try will return the result of the block.
CLAUSES are the subroutines below, which describe what to do in the
event of an error being thrown within BLOCK.
This clauses will cause all errors that satisfy $err->isa(CLASS)
to be caught and handled by evaluating BLOCK.
BLOCK will be passed two arguments. The first will be the error
being thrown. The second is a reference to a scalar variable. If this
variable is set by the catch block then, on return from the catch
block, try will continue processing as if the catch block was never
found. The error will also be available in $@.
To propagate the error the catch block may call $err->throw
If the scalar reference by the second argument is not set, and the error is not thrown. Then the current try block will return with the result from the catch block.
try is looking for a handler, if an except clause is found
BLOCK is evaluated. The return value from this block should be a
HASHREF or a list of key-value pairs, where the keys are class names
and the values are CODE references for the handler of errors of that
type.
Catch any error by executing the code in BLOCK
When evaluated BLOCK will be passed one argument, which will be the
error being processed. The error will also be available in $@.
Only one otherwise block may be specified per try block
Execute the code in BLOCK either after the code in the try block has
successfully completed, or if the try block throws an error then
BLOCK will be executed after the handler has completed.
If the handler throws an error then the error will be caught, the finally block will be executed and the error will be re-thrown.
Only one finally block may be specified per try block
The Error object is implemented as a HASH. This HASH is initialized
with the arguments that are passed to it's constructor. The elements
that are used by, or are retrievable by the Error class are listed
below, other classes may add to these.
\-file \-line \-text \-value \-object
If -file or -line are not specified in the constructor arguments
then these will be initialized with the file name and line number where
the constructor was called from.
If the error is associated with an object then the object should be
passed as the -object argument. This will allow the Error package
to associate the error with the object.
The Error package remembers the last error created, and also the
last error associated with a package. This could either be the last
error created by a sub in that package, or the last error which passed
an object blessed into that package as the -object argument.
Create a new Error object and throw an error, which will be caught
by a surrounding try block, if there is one. Otherwise it will cause
the program to exit.
throw may also be called on an existing error to re-throw it.
Create a new Error object and returns it. This is defined for
syntactic sugar, eg
die with Some::Error ( ... );
Create a new Error object and returns it. This is defined for
syntactic sugar, eg
record Some::Error ( ... ) and return;
PACKAGE
Flush the last error created, or the last error associated with
PACKAGE.It is necessary to clear the error stack before exiting the
package or uncaught errors generated using record will be reported.
$Error->flush;
$Error::Debug was non-zero when the error was
created, then stacktrace returns a string created by calling
Carp::longmess. If the variable was zero the stacktrace returns
the text of the error appended with the filename and line number of
where the error was created, providing the text does not end with a
newline.
Associates an error with an object to allow error propagation. I.e:
$ber->encode(...) or
return Error->prior($ber)->associate($ldap);
A method that converts the object into a string. This method may simply
return the same as the text method, or it may append more
information. For example the file name and line number.
By default this method returns the -text argument that was passed to
the constructor, or the string "Died" if none was given.
A method that will return a value that can be associated with the
error. For example if an error was created due to the failure of a
system call, then this may return the numeric value of $! at the
time.
By default this method returns the -value argument that was passed
to the constructor.
This class can be used to hold simple error strings and values. It's constructor takes two arguments. The first is a text value, the second is a numeric value. These values are what will be returned by the overload methods.
If the text value ends with at file line 1 as $@ strings do, then
this infomation will be used to set the -file and -line arguments
of the error object.
This class is used internally if an eval'd block die's with an error
that is a plain string. (Unless $Error::ObjectifyCallback is modified)
This variable holds a reference to a subroutine that converts errors that are plain strings to objects. It is used by Error.pm to convert textual errors to objects, and can be overrided by the user.
It accepts a single argument which is a hash reference to named parameters.
Currently the only named parameter passed is 'text' which is the text
of the error, but others may be available in the future.
For example the following code will cause Error.pm to throw objects of the class MyError::Bar by default:
sub throw_MyError_Bar
{
my $args = shift;
my $err = MyError::Bar->new();
$err->{'MyBarText'} = $args->{'text'};
return $err;
}
{
local $Error::ObjectifyCallback = \&throw_MyError_Bar;
# Error handling here.
}
Error also provides handlers to extend the output of the warn() perl
function, and to handle the printing of a thrown Error that is not caught
or otherwise handled. These are not installed by default, but are requested
using the :warndie tag in the use line.
use Error qw( :warndie );
These new error handlers are installed in $SIG{__WARN__} and
$SIG{__DIE__}. If these handlers are already defined when the tag is
imported, the old values are stored, and used during the new code. Thus, to
arrange for custom handling of warnings and errors, you will need to perform
something like the following:
BEGIN {
$SIG{__WARN__} = sub {
print STDERR "My special warning handler: $_[0]"
};
}
use Error qw( :warndie );
Note that setting $SIG{__WARN__} after the :warndie tag has been
imported will overwrite the handler that Error provides. If this cannot be
avoided, then the tag can be explicitly imported later
use Error;
$SIG{__WARN__} = ...;
import Error qw( :warndie );
The __DIE__ handler turns messages such as
Can't call method "foo" on an undefined value at examples/warndie.pl line 16.
into
Unhandled perl error caught at toplevel:
Can't call method "foo" on an undefined value
Thrown from: examples/warndie.pl:16
Full stack trace:
main::inner('undef') called at examples/warndie.pl line 20
main::outer('undef') called at examples/warndie.pl line 23
None, but that does not mean there are not any.
Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>
The code that inspired me to write this was originally written by Peter Seibel <peter@weblogic.com> and adapted by Jesse Glick <jglick@sig.bsh.com>.
:warndie handlers added by Paul Evans <leonerd@leonerd.org.uk>
Shlomi Fish <shlomif@iglu.org.il>
Arun Kumar U <u_arunkumar@yahoo.com>
Copyright (c) 1997-8 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.