Exception: Exception

Inherits:
Object show all
Defined in:
error.c

Overview

Descendants of class Exception are used to communicate between Kernel#raise and rescue statements in begin ... end blocks. Exception objects carry information about the exception -- its type (the exception's class name), an optional descriptive string, and optional traceback information. Exception subclasses may add additional information like NameError#name.

Programs may make subclasses of Exception, typically of StandardError or RuntimeError, to provide custom classes and add additional information. See the subclass list below for defaults for raise and rescue.

When an exception has been raised but not yet handled (in rescue, ensure, at_exit and END blocks) the global variable $! will contain the current exception and $@ contains the current exception's backtrace.

It is recommended that a library should have one subclass of StandardError or RuntimeError and have specific exception types inherit from it. This allows the user to rescue a generic exception type to catch all exceptions the library may raise even if future versions of the library add new exception subclasses.

For example:

class MyLibrary
  class Error < RuntimeError
  end

  class WidgetError < Error
  end

  class FrobError < Error
  end

end

To handle both WidgetError and FrobError the library user can rescue MyLibrary::Error.

The built-in subclasses of Exception are:

  • NoMemoryError

  • ScriptError

    • LoadError

    • NotImplementedError

    • SyntaxError

  • SignalException

    • Interrupt

  • StandardError -- default for rescue

    • ArgumentError

    • IndexError

      • StopIteration

    • IOError

      • EOFError

    • LocalJumpError

    • NameError

      • NoMethodError

    • RangeError

      • FloatDomainError

    • RegexpError

    • RuntimeError -- default for raise

    • SecurityError

    • SystemCallError

      • Errno::*

    • SystemStackError

    • ThreadError

    • TypeError

    • ZeroDivisionError

  • SystemExit

  • fatal -- impossible to rescue

Class Method Summary collapse

Instance Method Summary collapse

Constructor Details

#new(msg = nil) ⇒ Exception

Construct a new Exception object, optionally passing in

a message.



562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
 
# File 'error.c', line 562

static VALUE
exc_initialize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE arg;

    rb_scan_args(argc, argv, "01", &arg);
    rb_iv_set(exc, "mesg", arg);
    rb_iv_set(exc, "bt", Qnil);

    return exc;
}

Class Method Details

.exception ⇒ Object

call-seq:

exc.exception(string)  ->  an_exception or exc

With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. Otherwise, create a new exception object of the same class as the receiver, but with a message equal to string.to_str.

Instance Method Details

#==(obj) ⇒ Boolean

Equality---If obj is not an Exception, returns false. Otherwise, returns true if exc and obj share same class, messages, and backtrace.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
 
# File 'error.c', line 769

static VALUE
exc_equal(VALUE exc, VALUE obj)
{
    VALUE mesg, backtrace;
    ID id_mesg;

    if (exc == obj) return Qtrue;
    CONST_ID(id_mesg, "mesg");

    if (rb_obj_class(exc) != rb_obj_class(obj)) {
	int status = 0;
	ID id_message, id_backtrace;
	CONST_ID(id_message, "message");
	CONST_ID(id_backtrace, "backtrace");

	obj = rb_protect(try_convert_to_exception, obj, &status);
	if (status || obj == Qundef) {
	    rb_set_errinfo(Qnil);
	    return Qfalse;
	}
	if (rb_obj_class(exc) != rb_obj_class(obj)) return Qfalse;
	mesg = rb_check_funcall(obj, id_message, 0, 0);
	if (mesg == Qundef) return Qfalse;
	backtrace = rb_check_funcall(obj, id_backtrace, 0, 0);
	if (backtrace == Qundef) return Qfalse;
    }
    else {
	mesg = rb_attr_get(obj, id_mesg);
	backtrace = exc_backtrace(obj);
    }

    if (!rb_equal(rb_attr_get(exc, id_mesg), mesg))
	return Qfalse;
    if (!rb_equal(exc_backtrace(exc), backtrace))
	return Qfalse;
    return Qtrue;
}

#backtrace ⇒ Array

Returns any backtrace associated with the exception. The backtrace is an array of strings, each containing either "filename:lineNo: in 'method"' or "filename:lineNo."

def a
  raise "boom"
end

def b
  a()
end

begin
  b()
rescue => detail
  print detail.backtrace.join("\n")
end

produces:

prog.rb:2:in `a'
prog.rb:6:in `b'
prog.rb:10

Returns:



692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
 
# File 'error.c', line 692

static VALUE
exc_backtrace(VALUE exc)
{
    ID bt;
    VALUE obj;

    CONST_ID(bt, "bt");
    obj = rb_attr_get(exc, bt);

    if (rb_backtrace_p(obj)) {
	obj = rb_backtrace_to_str_ary(obj);
	/* rb_iv_set(exc, "bt", obj); */
    }

    return obj;
}

#exception ⇒ Object

call-seq:

exc.exception(string)  ->  an_exception or exc

With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. Otherwise, create a new exception object of the same class as the receiver, but with a message equal to string.to_str.



587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
 
# File 'error.c', line 587

static VALUE
exc_exception(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    VALUE exc;

    if (argc == 0) return self;
    if (argc == 1 && self == argv[0]) return self;
    exc = rb_obj_clone(self);
    exc_initialize(argc, argv, exc);

    return exc;
}

#inspect ⇒ String

Return this exception's class name and message

Returns:



642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
 
# File 'error.c', line 642

static VALUE
exc_inspect(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE str, klass;

    klass = CLASS_OF(exc);
    exc = rb_obj_as_string(exc);
    if (RSTRING_LEN(exc) == 0) {
	return rb_str_dup(rb_class_name(klass));
    }

    str = rb_str_buf_new2("#<");
    klass = rb_class_name(klass);
    rb_str_buf_append(str, klass);
    rb_str_buf_cat(str, ": ", 2);
    rb_str_buf_append(str, exc);
    rb_str_buf_cat(str, ">", 1);

    return str;
}

#message ⇒ String

Returns the result of invoking exception.to_s. Normally this returns the exception's message or name. By supplying a to_str method, exceptions are agreeing to be used where Strings are expected.

Returns:



629
630
631
632
633
 
# File 'error.c', line 629

static VALUE
exc_message(VALUE exc)
{
    return rb_funcall(exc, rb_intern("to_s"), 0, 0);
}

#set_backtrace(backtrace) ⇒ Array

Sets the backtrace information associated with exc. The backtrace must be an array of String objects or a single String in the format described in Exception#backtrace.

Returns:



740
741
742
743
744
 
# File 'error.c', line 740

static VALUE
exc_set_backtrace(VALUE exc, VALUE bt)
{
    return rb_iv_set(exc, "bt", rb_check_backtrace(bt));
}

#to_s ⇒ String

Returns exception's message (or the name of the exception if no message is set).

Returns:



608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
 
# File 'error.c', line 608

static VALUE
exc_to_s(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE mesg = rb_attr_get(exc, rb_intern("mesg"));
    VALUE r = Qnil;

    if (NIL_P(mesg)) return rb_class_name(CLASS_OF(exc));
    r = rb_String(mesg);
    return r;
}