CompletableFuture.allOf, logging and rethrowing exception - concurrency

I have a set of futures, each of which may throw an exception that I want to log in my way and rethrow, but this doesn't compile:
CompletableFuture<Void> lordOfFutures = CompletableFuture.allOf(future1, future3, future2)
.handle((screen, throwable) -> {
if (throwable!=null) {
LOG.error(throwable, throwable);
throw throwable;
} else {
return screen;
});
Is it possible to log the first exception that occurs and rethrow it?

handle expects a BiFunction<? super T,Throwable,? extends U> whose apply method is not allowed to throw Throwable. This applies to all functions of the java.util.function package. But you don’t need to rethrow the throwable at all:
CompletableFuture<Void> lordOfFutures = CompletableFuture.allOf(future1, future3, future2)
.whenComplete((screen, throwable) -> {
if (throwable!=null) {
LOG.error(throwable, throwable);
});
The future returned by whenComplete will have the same completion state or value as the future you’re calling it on (but only after executing the specified action). So if the future returned by allOf gets completed exceptionally, the “lordOfFutures” will be too, and otherwise, it will be completed with the same value (which is always null here).

Related

Set exception on promise without using std::current_exception

In C++ reference regarding the set_exception method , the example uses std::current_exception. To do that you have to throw and catch your exception:
std::thread t([&p]{
try {
// code that may throw
throw std::runtime_error("Example");
} catch(...) {
try {
// store anything thrown in the promise
p.set_exception(std::current_exception());
// or throw a custom exception instead
// p.set_exception(std::make_exception_ptr(MyException("mine")));
} catch(...) {} // set_exception() may throw too
}
});
This throwing and catching is obviously tedious, but the method accepts a std::exception_ptr. I was wondering whether it's possible to set a specific exception directly. I imagine the problem would be that a local exception object would have lifetime issues if we pass around a pointer to its address and allocating a new exception object would leave memory leaks. Is there a way ?

C++: How to catch exceptions thrown from constructors?

I have a class, call it A, whose constructor takes some input arguments, and may throw an exception if they are incompatible for constructing that object. In my main code, I construct an object of type A as follows:
A my_obj(arg1,arg2,arg3);
and use it. Obviously if the constructor fails and throws the exception, the execution of the program will be terminated after printing out an 'unhandled exception' message.
I, however, would like to give the user more information in this case and tell him/her why the exception has been thrown. So, I need a way to catch the exception.
To this end, one possibility is to enclose the whole code, starting from the declaration of my_obj till the end of the program in a try block and catch the exception afterwards:
try {
A my_obj(arg1, arg2, arg3);
// ...
// about 100 other lines of code being executed if my_obj is created properly
}
catch (std::exception& e) {
// print a user-friendly error message and exit
}
But this looks to me a bit of an 'overkill'. Specifically since no other exceptions are thrown in the remaining 100 lines. Is there any other nicer way to accomplish this?
If the constructor throws, you don't have an object. std::optional<> is a type that means "We might not have an object here".
template <typename T, typename ... Args>
std::optional<T> try_make(Args&& ... args)
{ try {
return make_optional(std::forward(args...));
} catch (...) {
return {};
} }
Then
auto my_obj = try_make<A>(arg1,arg2,arg3);
if (my_obj) {
// about 100 other lines of code being executed if my_obj is created properly
}
One possibility would be the usage of a pointer (better use a smart pointer such as an unique_ptr as in below code). You would leave the unique_ptr empty, call the constructor in the try block and move the pointer into the unique_ptr. After that your other code executes. Surely you have to check for a valid pointer with the operator bool of unique_ptr in a simple if statement.
To simplify the usage of my_obj a reference is taken: A& my_obj_ref = *my_obj;.
std::unique_ptr<A> my_obj;
try {
my_obj = std::move(std::unique_ptr<A>(new A(arg1, arg2, arg3));
}
catch (std::exception& e) {
// print a user-friendly error message and exit
}
if (my_obj) { // needed if your exception handling doesn't break out of the function
A& my_obj_ref = *my_obj;
// ...
// about 100 other lines of code being executed if my_obj is created properly
}
Remember that this way would allocate your object on the heap instead of the stack.
You can abstract the object construction into a function that catches the exception:
template<typename... Args>
A make_a(Args&&... args) {
try {
return A(std::forward(args)...);
}
catch (std::exception& e) {
// print a user-friendly error message and exit
...
std::exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
// ... in the actual code:
A my_obj = make_a(arg1, arg2, arg3);
The above makes use of the fact that your program is exiting if construction fails. If the requirement were to continue running, the function could return std::optional<A> (or its boost equivalent if you don't have access to C++17.)
You have several options here, depending on how you want control to continue if the construction fails.
If you want to exit the function by throwing an exception, then you don't need to do anything, you can let the A construction exception propagate up.
If you want to exit by either throwing a different exception, or by performing some actions before letting the A construction exception propagate, then use a factory function (perhaps a lambda) that performs those actions, e.g.:
auto a_factory(T x, U y) -> A // or use perfect forwarding
{
try { return A(x, y); }
catch(...) {
log("constructing A failed...");
throw other_exception();
}
}
// ...
A my_obj = a_factory(x, y);
If you want to exit by returning a value, then you could still use the above method, but wrap the calling function in another function that catches expected exceptions and returns a value.
Or you could use the optional (below) or unique_ptr (as covered by other answers) technique, but executing a return statement from the catch block.
If you want to continue execution without a valid A, then you can do:
std::optional<A> opt_my_obj;
try
{
A temp(...args...);
opt_my_obj.swap(temp);
} catch(...)
{
// handling, you could return from the function here
}
// At this point you can test `if ( opt_my_obj )` to branch the flow.
// When you're at a point where you have verified the object exists, you
// can enable normal object syntax by writing:
A& my_obj = *opt_my_obj;
If you have several objects in your function that need this consideration, I would tend to suggest the version of having the whole function wrapped in a try...catch that can handle all the different exceptions.
I tend to do it simple: Throw the human readable message. This strategy works well when there is no choice, and usually, there isn't. There is a catch though, you want exception handling to be reasonably robust, so I package the message inside a std::array<char,4096> truncating if necessary and remembering the zero-terminator (I know that this could blow the stack but it should be fine if we are not in a recursive function), and throw that.
Example:
try
{
Options opts(argv);
SomeResource resource(opts.someParameter());
//...More actions that could throw
}
catch(const std::array<char,4096>& errmessage) //Or rather some other type that contains the message.
{
fprintf(stderr,"Error: %s\n",errmessage.data());
return -1; //Or any non-zero value
}
return 0;
Pros:
Quick to implement new constructors for new classes since there is one exception class only, that will works for everything
You will pick up any system messages right from the source
Cons:
Lack of context: The message will have to say something like "It was not possible to open the file foo: No such file or directory.". Without telling the user what the root cause for the exception. This problem is inherited from the exception model and cannot be solved without treating exceptions as glorified error codes
If you want to branch on exception content, you must parse the message, but I find this rarely needed. Possibly in the context of a compiler, but that would print that message anyway foo:54:1: Error: bar is not a baz.

Will throwing an exception in a catch block lead to two exceptions being in flight? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Nested try...catch inside C++ exception handler?
(2 answers)
Closed 1 year ago.
Consider the following C++ code:
class MyException {};
void someFunction()
{
try
{
/// ... code that may throw
}
catch(std::exception& e )
{
throw MyException();
}
}
Question
Is the exception e absorbed at the beginnging of the catch block or at the end of the catch block?
In the second case throwing the new exception would result in having two exceptions in flight, what is not what I want. I want to absorb the std::exception and start one of my own type.
No. That's how one should do it. The throw myException() can only occur if the first exception has been caught and hence is no longer 'in flight'.
This design pattern is quite common to 'translate' error messages coming from another library that your code is using to an error that the user of your code can better relate to.
Alternatively, if you want to do more than merely throw (say you want to do some clearing up of resources -- though that should really be done via RAII, i.e. from destructors), then you can simply rethrow the original exception via
try
{
// ... code that may throw
}
catch(...) // catches anything
{
// ... code that runs before rethrowing
throw; // rethrows the original catch
}
just throw; statement is enough in catch block to rethrow same exception in higher context.
It throws SAME exception again. No new exception is generated. So no fight :)
In case you want to catch exception of type A and then throw exception of type B, then the way you did it is absolute correct.
In this case, old exception (type A) is caught(absorbed) and only new exception(type B) is thrown to higher context. So, again no fight :)

Why rethrow an exception

In C++, why would you want to rethrow an exception. Why not let the current catch block handle the exception. For what reasons would you rethrow an exception to another try/catch block?
An exception is thrown when a function cannot meet its contract (what it promises the caller it will do). When a function calls another function that throws an exception, there are four main approaches to how it might respond:
Catch the exception and handle it. This should only be done if the function is able to meet its contract despite the exception being thrown. If it catches the exception but fails to meet its contract, it is hiding a problem from the calling code.
Allow the exception to propagate. This should be done if the exception cannot be handled by this function (that is, the function is unable to meet its contract because the exception has been thrown), and if the exception exposes the appropriate information to the calling code.
Catch the exception, do some clean-up and/or add extra info, and rethrow it. This should be done if the exception cannot be handled by this function, but it needs to do some cleaning up before propagating it. It can also provide extra information to help with handling/debugging the exception (I often think of the programmer as the very last exception handler).
Catch the exception and throw a different exception (perhaps wrapping the original). This should be done if the exception cannot be handled by this function, but a different exception better expresses the problem to the calling code.
Why not let the current catch block handle the exception. For what reasons would you rethrow an exception to another try/catch block?
The idea behind exceptions is that you throw them at the error site and handle them down the stack, where you have enough information to handle the error.
Conversely, there are cases when you must do something in case of an error, but still don't know how to handle the error (this is the case when you rethrow).
Example:
void connect_and_notify(int connection_data)
{
try
{
create_network_connection(connection_data); // defined somewhere else
notify("connection open"); // same (notify event listeners)
}
catch(const std::runtime_error&)
{
notify("connection failed");
throw;
}
}
Client code:
void terminal_app_controller()
{
try
{
connect_and_notify(1);
}
catch(const std::runtime_error& err)
{
std::cerr << "Connection failed;\n";
exit(1); // this is usually bad bad code but whatever
}
}
void ongoing_server_controller()
{
bool connected = false;
int connection = 1;
while(!connected)
{
try
{
connect_and_notify(1);
connected = true;
}
catch(const std::runtime_error&)
{
connection++;
}
}
}
In the two usage scenarios, the error is handled differently (connect_and_notify has no way of knowing that, but still, on a failed connection it must notify listeners).
Each function has a different policy to handle the exception and this means different catch blocks.
I very much dislike anything like
catch (std::exception&) {
... // do some cleanup
throw;
}
RAII is the correct solution to that problem. Even:
catch (std::exception&) {
... // do some logging here
throw;
}
can be handled with RAII, although it is less intuitive.
BUT - where I have rethrown is any situation where 3rd-part (or vendor-supplied) code throws "generic" exceptions with state. For example, when logging telematics messages to a database, I know that I often receive duplicate copies of the same message. Each message has a unique ID - so a primary key violation in my DB is an "innocent" error that should be silently ignored.
Unfortunately, the DB framework we use doesn't throw a specific exception for PK violations - so we need to catch the generic dbexception and check what its reason code is to decide what to do. Hence:
catch (db::exception& e) {
if (e.reason != db::exception::reason::pk_violation)
throw;
}
Also, piwi mentioned internal state. An example would be
for (;;) {
try {
...
}
catch (some_exception& e) {
if (retry_count > 3)
throw;
}
}
Remember: If you are going to rethrow, always catch by reference to avoid slicing the exception object. (You should usually catch by ref anyway, but it is even more important when rethrowing)

Rethrow from a function in the catch block

In this case, I have want to perform some actions based on the exception thrown and then re-throw the exception. Is this recommended - My aim is to do some work based on the exception thrown and rethrow it and have the application crash and generate dump that have the call stack in the exception.
class Foo
{
public:
void HandleException(const std::exception& ex)
{
// Log, report some metrics
throw;
}
void Work(//Some inputs)
{
try
{
// trying doing some work
}
catch (const std::exception& ex)
{
// This is really an exceptional situation, and the exception should be thrown which
// cause the exe to abort and create dump.
// Intention is to preserve call stack and have it in dump.
HandleException(ex);
}
}
}
Let me add another note to the question: When I have HandleException as a lambda function, throw in the lambda causes exception. Do I need to capture some state and how do I do that ?
When you catch an exception you have two options:
Achieve the original goal (contract) in some way, e.g. by retrying.
Report failure by throwing.
Rethrowing the original exception is one way to implement the second bullet point.
Yes that is valid. BUT it is also dangerous.
If you call throw; with no parameters and there is no exception currently in flight this will result in a call to std::terminate(). The problem with your current code is that anybody can call the function even when they are not in a catch block (which would result in termination).
So you may want to validate that an exception is propogating:
void HandleException(const std::exception& ex)
{
// Log, report some metrics
if (std::uncaught_exception()) {
throw;
}
// Maybe put an else here.
}
Also worth reading: GotW #47: Uncaught Exceptions