Why does clang 4.0 not catch std exceptions? - c++

Question

I have the following sample code that throws a std::ios_base::failure and tries to catch it, using clang 4.0 in c++11 mode:
#include <ios>
#include <iostream>
#include <stdexcept>
int
main()
{
try {
throw new std::ios_base::failure( "Bonkers" );
}
catch( std::ios_base::failure &e ) {
std::cout << "Failure " << e.what() << std::endl;
}
catch( ... ) {
std::cout << "Anything" << std::endl;
}
return 0;
}
I compile the program like this:
clang++-4.0 --std=c++11 -g -W -Wall ex.cc -o ex
And I get the output:
Anything
I would have expected for it to catch the specific exception. I tried the same with g++ 5.4, but the same result. Also tried without the c++11 flag, does not help either. Taking out the catch all clause gives me this:
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::ios_base::failure[abi:cxx11]*'
So what am I missing, and what can I do to fix this? The abi:cxx11 is also shown when I am NOT using the c++11 flag.

Answer 1

As mentioned in the comments, in C++ you do not need to allocate the exception via new and hence throw the pointer to the exception, as would be done in Java.
Instead you simply construct the exception and throw it:
throw std::ios_base::failure( "Bonkers" );
Then the types of the catch clause will match, and the program will behave as expected.