7 $VERSION = eval $VERSION if $VERSION =~ /_/;
10 our @EXPORT = our @EXPORT_OK = qw(try catch finally);
13 $Carp::Internal{+__PACKAGE__}++;
15 # Need to prototype as @ not $$ because of the way Perl evaluates the prototype.
16 # Keeping it at $$ means you only ever get 1 sub because we need to eval in a list
17 # context & not a scalar one
20 my ( $try, @code_refs ) = @_;
22 # we need to save this here, the eval block will be in scalar context due
24 my $wantarray = wantarray;
26 my ( $catch, @finally );
28 # find labeled blocks in the argument list.
29 # catch and finally tag the blocks by blessing a scalar reference to them.
30 foreach my $code_ref (@code_refs) {
32 if ( ref($code_ref) eq 'Try::Tiny::Catch' ) {
33 croak 'A try() may not be followed by multiple catch() blocks'
35 $catch = ${$code_ref};
36 } elsif ( ref($code_ref) eq 'Try::Tiny::Finally' ) {
37 push @finally, ${$code_ref};
40 'try() encountered an unexpected argument ('
41 . ( defined $code_ref ? $code_ref : 'undef' )
42 . ') - perhaps a missing semi-colon before or'
47 # FIXME consider using local $SIG{__DIE__} to accumulate all errors. It's
48 # not perfect, but we could provide a list of additional errors for
51 # save the value of $@ so we can set $@ back to it in the beginning of the eval
52 # and restore $@ after the eval finishes
57 # failed will be true if the eval dies, because 1 will not be returned
59 my $failed = not eval {
62 # evaluate the try block in the correct context
65 } elsif ( defined $wantarray ) {
71 return 1; # properly set $fail to false
74 # reset the original value of $@
77 # set up a scope guard to invoke the finally block at the end
79 map { Try::Tiny::ScopeGuard->_new($_, $failed ? $error : ()) }
82 # at this point $failed contains a true value if the eval died, even if some
83 # destructor overwrote $@ as the eval was unwinding.
85 # if we got an error, invoke the catch block.
87 # This works like given($error), but is backwards compatible and
88 # sets $_ in the dynamic scope for the body of C<$catch>
90 return $catch->($error);
93 # in case when() was used without an explicit return, the C<for>
94 # loop will be aborted and there's no useful return value
99 # no failure, $@ is back to what it was, everything is fine
100 return $wantarray ? @ret : $ret[0];
105 my ( $block, @rest ) = @_;
107 croak 'Useless bare catch()' unless defined wantarray;
110 bless(\$block, 'Try::Tiny::Catch'),
116 my ( $block, @rest ) = @_;
118 croak 'Useless bare finally()' unless defined wantarray;
121 bless(\$block, 'Try::Tiny::Finally'),
127 package # hide from PAUSE
128 Try::Tiny::ScopeGuard;
130 use constant UNSTABLE_DOLLARAT => ($] < '5.013002') ? 1 : 0;
138 my ($code, @args) = @{ $_[0] };
140 local $@ if UNSTABLE_DOLLARAT;
146 "Execution of finally() block $code resulted in an exception, which "
147 . '*CAN NOT BE PROPAGATED* due to fundamental limitations of Perl. '
148 . 'Your program will continue as if this event never took place. '
149 . "Original exception text follows:\n\n"
150 . (defined $@ ? $@ : '$@ left undefined...')
165 Try::Tiny - minimal try/catch with proper preservation of $@
169 You can use Try::Tiny's C<try> and C<catch> to expect and handle exceptional
170 conditions, avoiding quirks in Perl and common mistakes:
172 # handle errors with a catch handler
176 warn "caught error: $_"; # not $@
179 You can also use it like a standalone C<eval> to catch and ignore any error
180 conditions. Obviously, this is an extreme measure not to be undertaken
183 # just silence errors
190 This module provides bare bones C<try>/C<catch>/C<finally> statements that are designed to
191 minimize common mistakes with eval blocks, and NOTHING else.
193 This is unlike L<TryCatch> which provides a nice syntax and avoids adding
194 another call stack layer, and supports calling C<return> from the C<try> block to
195 return from the parent subroutine. These extra features come at a cost of a few
196 dependencies, namely L<Devel::Declare> and L<Scope::Upper> which are
197 occasionally problematic, and the additional catch filtering uses L<Moose>
198 type constraints which may not be desirable either.
200 The main focus of this module is to provide simple and reliable error handling
201 for those having a hard time installing L<TryCatch>, but who still want to
202 write correct C<eval> blocks without 5 lines of boilerplate each time.
204 It's designed to work as correctly as possible in light of the various
205 pathological edge cases (see L</BACKGROUND>) and to be compatible with any style
206 of error values (simple strings, references, objects, overloaded objects, etc).
208 If the C<try> block dies, it returns the value of the last statement executed in
209 the C<catch> block, if there is one. Otherwise, it returns C<undef> in scalar
210 context or the empty list in list context. The following examples all
211 assign C<"bar"> to C<$x>:
213 my $x = try { die "foo" } catch { "bar" };
214 my $x = try { die "foo" } || { "bar" };
215 my $x = (try { die "foo" }) // { "bar" };
217 my $x = eval { die "foo" } || "bar";
219 You can add C<finally> blocks, yielding the following:
222 try { die 'foo' } finally { $x = 'bar' };
223 try { die 'foo' } catch { warn "Got a die: $_" } finally { $x = 'bar' };
225 C<finally> blocks are always executed making them suitable for cleanup code
226 which cannot be handled using local. You can add as many C<finally> blocks to a
227 given C<try> block as you like.
231 All functions are exported by default using L<Exporter>.
233 If you need to rename the C<try>, C<catch> or C<finally> keyword consider using
234 L<Sub::Import> to get L<Sub::Exporter>'s flexibility.
240 Takes one mandatory C<try> subroutine, an optional C<catch> subroutine and C<finally>
243 The mandatory subroutine is evaluated in the context of an C<eval> block.
245 If no error occurred the value from the first block is returned, preserving
248 If there was an error and the second subroutine was given it will be invoked
249 with the error in C<$_> (localized) and as that block's first and only
252 C<$@> does B<not> contain the error. Inside the C<catch> block it has the same
253 value it had before the C<try> block was executed.
255 Note that the error may be false, but if that happens the C<catch> block will
258 Once all execution is finished then the C<finally> block, if given, will execute.
262 Intended to be used in the second argument position of C<try>.
264 Returns a reference to the subroutine it was given but blessed as
265 C<Try::Tiny::Catch> which allows try to decode correctly what to do
266 with this code reference.
270 Inside the C<catch> block the caught error is stored in C<$_>, while previous
271 value of C<$@> is still available for use. This value may or may not be
272 meaningful depending on what happened before the C<try>, but it might be a good
273 idea to preserve it in an error stack.
275 For code that captures C<$@> when throwing new errors (i.e.
276 L<Class::Throwable>), you'll need to do:
297 Intended to be the second or third element of C<try>. C<finally> blocks are always
298 executed in the event of a successful C<try> or if C<catch> is run. This allows
299 you to locate cleanup code which cannot be done via C<local()> e.g. closing a file
302 When invoked, the C<finally> block is passed the error that was caught. If no
303 error was caught, it is passed nothing. (Note that the C<finally> block does not
304 localize C<$_> with the error, since unlike in a C<catch> block, there is no way
305 to know if C<$_ == undef> implies that there were no errors.) In other words,
306 the following code does just what you would expect:
311 # ...code run in case of error
314 print "The try block died with: @_\n";
316 print "The try block ran without error.\n";
320 B<You must always do your own error handling in the C<finally> block>. C<Try::Tiny> will
321 not do anything about handling possible errors coming from code located in these
324 Furthermore B<exceptions in C<finally> blocks are not trappable and are unable
325 to influence the execution of your program>. This is due to limitation of
326 C<DESTROY>-based scope guards, which C<finally> is implemented on top of. This
327 may change in a future version of Try::Tiny.
329 In the same way C<catch()> blesses the code reference this subroutine does the same
330 except it bless them as C<Try::Tiny::Finally>.
336 There are a number of issues with C<eval>.
340 When you run an C<eval> block and it succeeds, C<$@> will be cleared, potentially
341 clobbering an error that is currently being caught.
343 This causes action at a distance, clearing previous errors your caller may have
346 C<$@> must be properly localized before invoking C<eval> in order to avoid this
349 More specifically, C<$@> is clobbered at the beginning of the C<eval>, which
350 also makes it impossible to capture the previous error before you die (for
351 instance when making exception objects with error stacks).
353 For this reason C<try> will actually set C<$@> to its previous value (the one
354 available before entering the C<try> block) in the beginning of the C<eval>
357 =head2 Localizing $@ silently masks errors
359 Inside an C<eval> block, C<die> behaves sort of like:
363 return_undef_from_eval();
366 This means that if you were polite and localized C<$@> you can't die in that
367 scope, or your error will be discarded (printing "Something's wrong" instead).
369 The workaround is very ugly:
380 =head2 $@ might not be a true value
388 because due to the previous caveats it may have been unset.
390 C<$@> could also be an overloaded error object that evaluates to false, but
391 that's asking for trouble anyway.
393 The classic failure mode is:
395 sub Object::DESTROY {
400 my $obj = Object->new;
409 In this case since C<Object::DESTROY> is not localizing C<$@> but still uses
410 C<eval>, it will set C<$@> to C<"">.
412 The destructor is called when the stack is unwound, after C<die> sets C<$@> to
413 C<"foo at Foo.pm line 42\n">, so by the time C<if ( $@ )> is evaluated it has
414 been cleared by C<eval> in the destructor.
416 The workaround for this is even uglier than the previous ones. Even though we
417 can't save the value of C<$@> from code that doesn't localize, we can at least
418 be sure the C<eval> was aborted due to an error:
420 my $failed = not eval {
426 This is because an C<eval> that caught a C<die> will always return a false
431 Using Perl 5.10 you can use L<perlsyn/"Switch statements">.
433 The C<catch> block is invoked in a topicalizer context (like a C<given> block),
434 but note that you can't return a useful value from C<catch> using the C<when>
435 blocks without an explicit C<return>.
437 This is somewhat similar to Perl 6's C<CATCH> blocks. You can use it to
438 concisely match errors:
443 when (/^Can't locate .*?\.pm in \@INC/) { } # ignore
453 C<@_> is not available within the C<try> block, so you need to copy your
454 arglist. In case you want to work with argument values directly via C<@_>
455 aliasing (i.e. allow C<$_[1] = "foo">), you need to pass C<@_> by reference:
458 my ( $self, @args ) = @_;
459 try { $self->bar(@args) }
467 try { $_ = $self->bar($_) for @$args }
472 C<return> returns from the C<try> block, not from the parent sub (note that
473 this is also how C<eval> works, but not how L<TryCatch> works):
483 say "this text WILL be displayed, even though an exception is thrown";
486 Instead, you should capture the return value:
493 return unless $success;
495 say "This text WILL NEVER appear!";
498 Note that if you have a C<catch> block, it must return C<undef> for this to work,
499 since if a C<catch> block exists, its return value is returned in place of C<undef>
500 when an exception is thrown.
504 C<try> introduces another caller stack frame. L<Sub::Uplevel> is not used. L<Carp>
505 will not report this when using full stack traces, though, because
506 C<%Carp::Internal> is used. This lack of magic is considered a feature.
510 The value of C<$_> in the C<catch> block is not guaranteed to be the value of
511 the exception thrown (C<$@>) in the C<try> block. There is no safe way to
512 ensure this, since C<eval> may be used unhygenically in destructors. The only
513 guarantee is that the C<catch> will be called if an exception is thrown.
517 The return value of the C<catch> block is not ignored, so if testing the result
518 of the expression for truth on success, be sure to return a false value from
526 return; # avoid returning a true value;
533 C<$SIG{__DIE__}> is still in effect.
535 Though it can be argued that C<$SIG{__DIE__}> should be disabled inside of
536 C<eval> blocks, since it isn't people have grown to rely on it. Therefore in
537 the interests of compatibility, C<try> does not disable C<$SIG{__DIE__}> for
538 the scope of the error throwing code.
542 Lexical C<$_> may override the one set by C<catch>.
544 For example Perl 5.10's C<given> form uses a lexical C<$_>, creating some
552 warn $_; # will print $foo, not the error
553 warn $_[0]; # instead, get the error like this
558 Note that this behavior was changed once again in L<Perl5 version 18
559 |https://metacpan.org/module/perldelta#given-now-aliases-the-global-_>.
560 However, since the entirety of lexical C<$_> is now L<considired experimental
561 |https://metacpan.org/module/perldelta#Lexical-_-is-now-experimental>, it
562 is unclear whether the new version 18 behavior is final.
572 Much more feature complete, more convenient semantics, but at the cost of
573 implementation complexity.
577 Automatic error throwing for builtin functions and more. Also designed to
578 work well with C<given>/C<when>.
582 A lightweight role for rolling your own exception classes.
586 Exception object implementation with a C<try> statement. Does not localize
589 =item L<Exception::Class::TryCatch>
591 Provides a C<catch> statement, but properly calling C<eval> is your
594 The C<try> keyword pushes C<$@> onto an error stack, avoiding some of the
595 issues with C<$@>, but you still need to localize to prevent clobbering.
599 =head1 LIGHTNING TALK
601 I gave a lightning talk about this module, you can see the slides (Firefox
604 L<web.archive.org/web/20100628040134/http://nothingmuch.woobling.org/talks/takahashi.xul>
608 L<http://web.archive.org/web/20100305133605/http://nothingmuch.woobling.org/talks/yapc_asia_2009/try_tiny.yml>
610 =head1 VERSION CONTROL
612 L<http://github.com/nothingmuch/try-tiny/>
616 Yuval Kogman E<lt>nothingmuch@woobling.orgE<gt>
620 Copyright (c) 2009 Yuval Kogman. All rights reserved.
621 This program is free software; you can redistribute
622 it and/or modify it under the terms of the MIT license.