Re: Exceptions as smart pointers

From:
"Sergey P. Derevyago" <non-existent@iobox.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:58:43 CST
Message-ID:
<48b7c04f$0$90273$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>
David Abrahams wrote:

Then that's still not very useful, because the dtor might be called from
inside a catch block where the programmer needs non-throwing operations,
and in_stack_unwinding would be false.

    
Could you show the code, please?

       struct File
       {
           // ...

           ~File(bool unwinding)
           {
               if (int err = close(this->x))
               {
                   if (!unwinding)
                       throw couldnt_close(this->x, err);
               }
           }

           os_file_handle x;
       }

       void rollback()
       {
           if ( logging_enabled)
           {
               File f(log);
               f << "rolling_back\n";
           }
           // ...further rollback actions...
       }

       void f()
       {
             try
             {
                  // ...
             }
             catch(...)
             {
                  rollback();
                  raise;
             }
       }

    
I see no _additional_ problems here because File ctor can also throw
just like the File dtor in question.

     The point is that if in_stack_unwinding==true then an exception from
the destructor *shall* lead to terminate(). No guess, this is a strong
guarantee.


Not *that* strong ;-)

    
I prefer really robust solutions ;)

In fact, as far as I can tell, uncaught_exception() will be
true during a dtor in exactly the same cases where your enhanced dtor's
unwinding argument will be true. If I'm wrong, please demonstrate how.

    
Please, consider the following code:

void f()
{
  A a;
  throw something;
}

A::~A(bool unwinding)
{
  B b;
}

    In this case A's unwinding==true but B's unwinding==false. Does
uncaught_exception() have the same semantics?

Okay. I'm not sure whether I agree. What is your argument against
Pimpl exception objects that contain nothing more than a shared_ptr?
That approach at least preserves the ability to catch base classes.

    
It complicates the life if you need to build the nested exception
chains. The chain of sh_ptr<BaseException> objects is really easy to get
if you always throw sh_ptr<BaseException>.

     And it was the root of the problem!

Which problem?

    
The problem is the chain of nested exceptions.

    Please refer to the head of this thread
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.c++.moderated/msg/66a0c6484460d4ef
where I get the following output:
-----------------------------------8<-----------------------------------
     Exception #1:
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:127], message: Problems in f()
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:156], message: Problems in g()
ExampleException [..\tst_exc.cpp:136], message: Hello from g()

     Exception #2:
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:127], message: Problems in f()
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:156], message: Problems in g()
ders::StdExternException [..\tst_exc.cpp:154],
typeName="St12out_of_range", message: vector::_M_range_check

     Exception #3:
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:127], message: Problems in f()
ders::Exception [..\tst_exc.cpp:156], message: Problems in g()
ders::UnknExternException [..\tst_exc.cpp:154], typeName="unknown",
message: Unknown exception

     Exception #4:
ders::UnknExternException [..\tst_exc.cpp:110], typeName="unknown",
message: Unknown exception

Non-empty exit message
-----------------------------------8<-----------------------------------

     At the time, I tried to get portable and easy-to-use C++ exception
traces that somehow resemble my Java code. The direct solution is
sh_ptr<Exception>...


Is that the problem you're solving, then?

    
Yes, it is.
    But it was discovered that the throw sh_ptr<BaseException> approach has
additional advantages too.

shException recatchException(mem_pool& mp, const FileLine& location)
{
 try { throw; }
 catch (shException she) {
       return she;
 }
 catch (const std::exception& se) {
       return newStdExternException(mp, location, se.what(),
typeid(se).name());
 }
 catch (...) {
       return newUnknExternException(mp, location, "Unknown exception");
 }
}


Okay. I'm not sure why newException isn't calling recatchException
instead, but at least now I understand what you're doing.

    
Prefer "one class (or function), one responsibility", you know ;)
--
          With all respect, Sergey. http://ders.stml.net/
          mailto : ders at skeptik.net

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