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(elisp)Handling Errors


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Writing Code to Handle Errors
.............................

   The usual effect of signaling an error is to terminate the command
that is running and return immediately to the Emacs editor command loop.
You can arrange to trap errors occurring in a part of your program by
establishing an error handler, with the special form `condition-case'.
A simple example looks like this:

     (condition-case nil
         (delete-file filename)
       (error nil))

This deletes the file named FILENAME, catching any error and returning
`nil' if an error occurs.

   The second argument of `condition-case' is called the "protected
form".  (In the example above, the protected form is a call to
`delete-file'.)  The error handlers go into effect when this form
begins execution and are deactivated when this form returns.  They
remain in effect for all the intervening time.  In particular, they are
in effect during the execution of functions called by this form, in
their subroutines, and so on.  This is a good thing, since, strictly
speaking, errors can be signaled only by Lisp primitives (including
`signal' and `error') called by the protected form, not by the
protected form itself.

   The arguments after the protected form are handlers.  Each handler
lists one or more "condition names" (which are symbols) to specify
which errors it will handle.  The error symbol specified when an error
is signaled also defines a list of condition names.  A handler applies
to an error if they have any condition names in common.  In the example
above, there is one handler, and it specifies one condition name,
`error', which covers all errors.

   The search for an applicable handler checks all the established
handlers starting with the most recently established one.  Thus, if two
nested `condition-case' forms offer to handle the same error, the inner
of the two gets to handle it.

   If an error is handled by some `condition-case' form, this
ordinarily prevents the debugger from being run, even if
`debug-on-error' says this error should invoke the debugger.  Note:
Error Debugging.  If you want to be able to debug errors that are
caught by a `condition-case', set the variable `debug-on-signal' to a
non-`nil' value.

   When an error is handled, control returns to the handler.  Before
this happens, Emacs unbinds all variable bindings made by binding
constructs that are being exited and executes the cleanups of all
`unwind-protect' forms that are exited.  Once control arrives at the
handler, the body of the handler is executed.

   After execution of the handler body, execution returns from the
`condition-case' form.  Because the protected form is exited completely
before execution of the handler, the handler cannot resume execution at
the point of the error, nor can it examine variable bindings that were
made within the protected form.  All it can do is clean up and proceed.

   The `condition-case' construct is often used to trap errors that are
predictable, such as failure to open a file in a call to
`insert-file-contents'.  It is also used to trap errors that are
totally unpredictable, such as when the program evaluates an expression
read from the user.

   Error signaling and handling have some resemblance to `throw' and
`catch' (Note: Catch and Throw), but they are entirely separate
facilities.  An error cannot be caught by a `catch', and a `throw'
cannot be handled by an error handler (though using `throw' when there
is no suitable `catch' signals an error that can be handled).

 - Special Form: condition-case var protected-form handlers...
     This special form establishes the error handlers HANDLERS around
     the execution of PROTECTED-FORM.  If PROTECTED-FORM executes
     without error, the value it returns becomes the value of the
     `condition-case' form; in this case, the `condition-case' has no
     effect.  The `condition-case' form makes a difference when an
     error occurs during PROTECTED-FORM.

     Each of the HANDLERS is a list of the form `(CONDITIONS BODY...)'.
     Here CONDITIONS is an error condition name to be handled, or a
     list of condition names; BODY is one or more Lisp expressions to
     be executed when this handler handles an error.  Here are examples
     of handlers:

          (error nil)
          
          (arith-error (message "Division by zero"))
          
          ((arith-error file-error)
           (message
            "Either division by zero or failure to open a file"))

     Each error that occurs has an "error symbol" that describes what
     kind of error it is.  The `error-conditions' property of this
     symbol is a list of condition names (Note: Error Symbols).  Emacs
     searches all the active `condition-case' forms for a handler that
     specifies one or more of these condition names; the innermost
     matching `condition-case' handles the error.  Within this
     `condition-case', the first applicable handler handles the error.

     After executing the body of the handler, the `condition-case'
     returns normally, using the value of the last form in the handler
     body as the overall value.

     The argument VAR is a variable.  `condition-case' does not bind
     this variable when executing the PROTECTED-FORM, only when it
     handles an error.  At that time, it binds VAR locally to an "error
     description", which is a list giving the particulars of the error.
     The error description has the form `(ERROR-SYMBOL . DATA)'.  The
     handler can refer to this list to decide what to do.  For example,
     if the error is for failure opening a file, the file name is the
     second element of DATA--the third element of the error description.

     If VAR is `nil', that means no variable is bound.  Then the error
     symbol and associated data are not available to the handler.

 - Function: error-message-string error-description
     This function returns the error message string for a given error
     descriptor.  It is useful if you want to handle an error by
     printing the usual error message for that error.

   Here is an example of using `condition-case' to handle the error
that results from dividing by zero.  The handler displays the error
message (but without a beep), then returns a very large number.

     (defun safe-divide (dividend divisor)
       (condition-case err
           ;; Protected form.
           (/ dividend divisor)
         ;; The handler.
         (arith-error                        ; Condition.
          ;; Display the usual message for this error.
          (message "%s" (error-message-string err))
          1000000)))
     => safe-divide
     
     (safe-divide 5 0)
          -| Arithmetic error: (arith-error)
     => 1000000

The handler specifies condition name `arith-error' so that it will
handle only division-by-zero errors.  Other kinds of errors will not be
handled, at least not by this `condition-case'.  Thus,

     (safe-divide nil 3)
          error--> Wrong type argument: number-or-marker-p, nil

   Here is a `condition-case' that catches all kinds of errors,
including those signaled with `error':

     (setq baz 34)
          => 34
     
     (condition-case err
         (if (eq baz 35)
             t
           ;; This is a call to the function `error'.
           (error "Rats!  The variable %s was %s, not 35" 'baz baz))
       ;; This is the handler; it is not a form.
       (error (princ (format "The error was: %s" err))
              2))
     -| The error was: (error "Rats!  The variable baz was 34, not 35")
     => 2


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