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[mLib] / man / exc.3

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.TH exc 3 "20 June 1999" "Straylight/Edgeware" "mLib utilities library"
.SH NAME
exc \- exception handling for C programs
.\" @TRY
.\" @CATCH
.\" @END_TRY
.\" @THROW
.\" @RETHROW
.\"
.\" @exc_uncaught
.\"
.\" @EXC_PAIR
.\" @EXC_ALLOC
.\" @EXC_ALLOCN
.\" @EXC_ALLOCI
.\" @EXC_ALLOCP
.\" @EXC_ALLOCS
.\"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B "#include <mLib/exc.h>"
.sp 1
.B TRY
.I statement
.B CATCH
.I statement
.B END_TRY;
.br
.B EXIT_TRY;
.sp 1
.BI "THROW(exc_extype " type
.RB [ ,
.IR data ]\fB);
.br
.B RETHROW;
.sp 1
.nf
.B "typedef void (*exc__uncaught)(exc_extype, exc_exval);"
.BI "exc__uncaught exc_uncaught(exc__uncaught " proc );

.BI "exc_extype EXC_PAIR(unsigned char " x ", unsigned char " y );
.BI "exc_extype EXC_ALLOC(exc_extype " owner ", exc_extype " type );
.BI "exc_extype EXC_ALLOCN(exc_extype " owner ", exc_extype " type );
.BI "exc_extype EXC_ALLOCI(exc_extype " owner ", exc_extype " type );
.BI "exc_extype EXC_ALLOCP(exc_extype " owner ", exc_extype " type );
.BI "exc_extype EXC_ALLOCS(exc_extype " owner ", exc_extype " type );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The header file
.B <mLib/exc.h>
introduces some new syntax and definitions to support exception handling
in C.  The marriage is not particularly successful, although it works
well enough in practice.
.PP
The syntax introduced consists of new
.B TRY
and
.B EXIT_TRY
statements and a pair of new expression types
.B THROW
and
.BR RETHROW .
It's unfortunately important to remember that the syntax is provided
using macro expansion and standard C facilities; some of the
restrictions of these features show through.
.SS "The TRY statement"
The
.B TRY
statement associates an exception handler with a piece of code.  The
second statement is an
.IR "exception handler" .
Its
.I "dynamic scope"
is the duration of the first statement's execution, together with the
duration of any functions called within the dynamic scope.  (Note in
particular that an exception handler is not within its own dynamic
scope.)  A thrown exception causes the exception handler with
dynamically innermost scope to be executed.
.PP
Two special variables are provided to the exception handler:
.TP
.B exc_type
The
.I type
of the exception caught.  This is value of type
.B exc_extype
(described below).
.TP
.B exc_val
The
.I value
of the exception.  This has a union type, with members
.BR "int i",
.B "void *p"
and
.BR "char *s" .
Only one of the members is valid; you should be able to work out which
from the exception type.  There are abbreviations
.BR "exc_i",
.B exc_p
and
.B exc_s
which refer to members of
.B exc_val
directly.
.SS "The EXIT_TRY statement"
It is not safe to leave the dynamic scope of an exception handler early
(e.g., by a
.B goto
statement).  You can force a safe exit from a dynamic scope using the
.B EXIT_TRY
statement from within the
.I lexical
scope of the
.B TRY
statement.
.SS "The THROW and RETHROW statements"
The
.B THROW
expression throws an exception.  The first argument is the type of
exception; the second is some data to attach to the exception.  The type
of data, integer, string or pointer, is determined from the exception
type.
.PP
Control is immediately passed to the exception handler with the
innermost enclosing dynamic scope.
.PP
The
.B RETHROW
expression is only valid within an exception handler.  It rethrows the
last exception caught by the handler.
.PP
Neither
.B THROW
nor
.B RETHROW
yields any value.
.SS "Exception type allocation"
Exception types are 32-bit values.  The top 16 bits are an
.IR "owner identifier" .
The idea is that each library can have an owner identifier, and it can
then allocate exceptions for its own use from the remaining space.  Two
special owner codes are defined:
.TP
.B "EXC_GLOBAL (0x0000)"
The global space defined for everyone's benefit.  Don't define your own
exceptions in this space.
.TP
.B "EXC_SHARED (0xffff)"
A shared space.  You can use this for any exceptions which won't be seen
by anyone else.
.PP
Other owner codes may be allocated by choosing two characters (probably
letters) which best suit your application and applying the
.B EXC_PAIR
macro to them.  For example, the owner code for
.B mLib
would probably be
.BR "EXC_PAIR('m', 'L')" ,
if
.B mLib
defined any exceptions other then the global ones.
.PP
The bottom 16 bits are the actual exception type, and the data type
which gets passed around with the exception.  The data type is
(bizarrely) in bits 6 and 7 of the type word.  The data type code is one
of the following:
.TP
.B EXC_NOVAL
There is no data associated with this exception.
.TP
.B EXC_INTVAL
The data is an integer, with type
.BR int .
.TP
.B EXC_PTRVAL
The data is a pointer to some data structure, with type
.BR "void *" .
Note that you probably have to do an explicit cast to
.B "void *"
in the
.B THROW
expression.
.TP
.B EXC_STRVAL
The data is a pointer to a string of characters, of type
.BR "char *" .
.PP
If the data to be thrown is a pointer, make sure that the object pointed
to has a long enough lifetime for it to actually get to its exception
handler intact.  In particular, don't pass pointers to automatic
variables unless you're
.I sure
they were allocated outside the handler's dynamic scope.
.PP
Individual exceptions are allocated by the macros
.BI EXC_ALLOC t\fR,
where
.I t
is one of:
.TP
.B N
The exception has no data
.TP
.B I
The exception data is an integer.
.TP
.B P
The exception data is a pointer.
.TP
.B S
The exception data is a character string.
.PP
The
.BI EXC_ALLOC t
macros take two arguments: the owner code (usually allocated with
.B EXC_PAIR
as described above), and the type code.  The data type is encoded into
the exception type by the allocation macro.
.SS "Predefined exceptions"
The following exceptions are predefined:
.TP
.B EXC_NOMEM
No data.  Signals an out-of-memory condition.
.TP
.B EXC_ERRNO
Integer data.  Signals an operating system error.  The data is the value
of
.B errno
associated with the error.
.TP
.B EXC_OSERROR
Pointer data.  Signals a RISC\ OS error.  The data is a pointer to the
RISC\ OS error block.  (Non RISC\ OS programmers don't need to worry
about this.)
.TP
.B EXC_SIGNAL
Integer data.  Signals a raised operating system signal.  The data is
the signal number.
.TP
.B EXC_FAIL
String data.  Signals a miscellaneous failure.  The data is a pointer to
an explanatory string.
.SH BUGS
The call to an exception handler is achieved using
.BR longjmp (3).
Therefore all the caveats about
.B longjmp
and automatic data apply.  Also, note that status such as the signal
mask is not reset, so you might have to do that manually in order to
recover from a signal.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR mLib (3).
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding, <mdw@nsict.org>