base-4.2.0.2: Basic librariesSource codeContentsIndex
Control.Exception.Base
Portabilitynon-portable (extended exceptions)
Stabilityexperimental
Maintainerlibraries@haskell.org
Contents
The Exception type
Throwing exceptions
Catching Exceptions
The catch functions
The handle functions
The try functions
The evaluate function
The mapException function
Asynchronous Exceptions
Asynchronous exception control
Assertions
Utilities
Calls for GHC runtime
Description
Extensible exceptions, except for multiple handlers.
Synopsis
data SomeException = forall e . Exception e => SomeException e
class (Typeable e, Show e) => Exception e where
toException :: e -> SomeException
fromException :: SomeException -> Maybe e
data IOException
data ArithException
= Overflow
| Underflow
| LossOfPrecision
| DivideByZero
| Denormal
data ArrayException
= IndexOutOfBounds String
| UndefinedElement String
data AssertionFailed = AssertionFailed String
data AsyncException
= StackOverflow
| HeapOverflow
| ThreadKilled
| UserInterrupt
data NonTermination = NonTermination
data NestedAtomically = NestedAtomically
data BlockedIndefinitelyOnMVar = BlockedIndefinitelyOnMVar
data BlockedIndefinitelyOnSTM = BlockedIndefinitelyOnSTM
data Deadlock = Deadlock
data NoMethodError = NoMethodError String
data PatternMatchFail = PatternMatchFail String
data RecConError = RecConError String
data RecSelError = RecSelError String
data RecUpdError = RecUpdError String
data ErrorCall = ErrorCall String
throwIO :: Exception e => e -> IO a
throw :: Exception e => e -> a
ioError :: IOError -> IO a
throwTo :: Exception e => ThreadId -> e -> IO ()
catch :: Exception e => IO a -> (e -> IO a) -> IO a
catchJust :: Exception e => (e -> Maybe b) -> IO a -> (b -> IO a) -> IO a
handle :: Exception e => (e -> IO a) -> IO a -> IO a
handleJust :: Exception e => (e -> Maybe b) -> (b -> IO a) -> IO a -> IO a
try :: Exception e => IO a -> IO (Either e a)
tryJust :: Exception e => (e -> Maybe b) -> IO a -> IO (Either b a)
onException :: IO a -> IO b -> IO a
evaluate :: a -> IO a
mapException :: (Exception e1, Exception e2) => (e1 -> e2) -> a -> a
block :: IO a -> IO a
unblock :: IO a -> IO a
blocked :: IO Bool
assert :: Bool -> a -> a
bracket :: IO a -> (a -> IO b) -> (a -> IO c) -> IO c
bracket_ :: IO a -> IO b -> IO c -> IO c
bracketOnError :: IO a -> (a -> IO b) -> (a -> IO c) -> IO c
finally :: IO a -> IO b -> IO a
recSelError :: Addr# -> a
recConError :: Addr# -> a
irrefutPatError :: Addr# -> a
runtimeError :: Addr# -> a
nonExhaustiveGuardsError :: Addr# -> a
patError :: Addr# -> a
noMethodBindingError :: Addr# -> a
nonTermination :: SomeException
nestedAtomically :: SomeException
The Exception type
data SomeException Source
The SomeException type is the root of the exception type hierarchy. When an exception of type e is thrown, behind the scenes it is encapsulated in a SomeException.
Constructors
forall e . Exception e => SomeException e
show/hide Instances
class (Typeable e, Show e) => Exception e whereSource

Any type that you wish to throw or catch as an exception must be an instance of the Exception class. The simplest case is a new exception type directly below the root:

 data MyException = ThisException | ThatException
     deriving (Show, Typeable)

 instance Exception MyException

The default method definitions in the Exception class do what we need in this case. You can now throw and catch ThisException and ThatException as exceptions:

*Main> throw ThisException catch e -> putStrLn ("Caught " ++ show (e :: MyException))
Caught ThisException

In more complicated examples, you may wish to define a whole hierarchy of exceptions:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- Make the root exception type for all the exceptions in a compiler

 data SomeCompilerException = forall e . Exception e => SomeCompilerException e
     deriving Typeable

 instance Show SomeCompilerException where
     show (SomeCompilerException e) = show e

 instance Exception SomeCompilerException

 compilerExceptionToException :: Exception e => e -> SomeException
 compilerExceptionToException = toException . SomeCompilerException

 compilerExceptionFromException :: Exception e => SomeException -> Maybe e
 compilerExceptionFromException x = do
     SomeCompilerException a <- fromException x
     cast a

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- Make a subhierarchy for exceptions in the frontend of the compiler

 data SomeFrontendException = forall e . Exception e => SomeFrontendException e
     deriving Typeable

 instance Show SomeFrontendException where
     show (SomeFrontendException e) = show e

 instance Exception SomeFrontendException where
     toException = compilerExceptionToException
     fromException = compilerExceptionFromException

 frontendExceptionToException :: Exception e => e -> SomeException
 frontendExceptionToException = toException . SomeFrontendException

 frontendExceptionFromException :: Exception e => SomeException -> Maybe e
 frontendExceptionFromException x = do
     SomeFrontendException a <- fromException x
     cast a

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- Make an exception type for a particular frontend compiler exception

 data MismatchedParentheses = MismatchedParentheses
     deriving (Typeable, Show)

 instance Exception MismatchedParentheses where
     toException   = frontendExceptionToException
     fromException = frontendExceptionFromException

We can now catch a MismatchedParentheses exception as MismatchedParentheses, SomeFrontendException or SomeCompilerException, but not other types, e.g. IOException:

*Main> throw MismatchedParentheses catch e -> putStrLn ("Caught " ++ show (e :: MismatchedParentheses))
Caught MismatchedParentheses
*Main> throw MismatchedParentheses catch e -> putStrLn ("Caught " ++ show (e :: SomeFrontendException))
Caught MismatchedParentheses
*Main> throw MismatchedParentheses catch e -> putStrLn ("Caught " ++ show (e :: SomeCompilerException))
Caught MismatchedParentheses
*Main> throw MismatchedParentheses catch e -> putStrLn ("Caught " ++ show (e :: IOException))
*** Exception: MismatchedParentheses
Methods
toException :: e -> SomeExceptionSource
fromException :: SomeException -> Maybe eSource
show/hide Instances
data IOException Source
Exceptions that occur in the IO monad. An IOException records a more specific error type, a descriptive string and maybe the handle that was used when the error was flagged.
show/hide Instances
data ArithException Source
Arithmetic exceptions.
Constructors
Overflow
Underflow
LossOfPrecision
DivideByZero
Denormal
show/hide Instances
data ArrayException Source
Exceptions generated by array operations
Constructors
IndexOutOfBounds StringAn attempt was made to index an array outside its declared bounds.
UndefinedElement StringAn attempt was made to evaluate an element of an array that had not been initialized.
show/hide Instances
data AssertionFailed Source
assert was applied to False.
Constructors
AssertionFailed String
show/hide Instances
data AsyncException Source
Asynchronous exceptions.
Constructors
StackOverflowThe current thread's stack exceeded its limit. Since an exception has been raised, the thread's stack will certainly be below its limit again, but the programmer should take remedial action immediately.
HeapOverflow

The program's heap is reaching its limit, and the program should take action to reduce the amount of live data it has. Notes:

  • It is undefined which thread receives this exception.
  • GHC currently does not throw HeapOverflow exceptions.
ThreadKilledThis exception is raised by another thread calling Control.Concurrent.killThread, or by the system if it needs to terminate the thread for some reason.
UserInterruptThis exception is raised by default in the main thread of the program when the user requests to terminate the program via the usual mechanism(s) (e.g. Control-C in the console).
show/hide Instances
data NonTermination Source
Thrown when the runtime system detects that the computation is guaranteed not to terminate. Note that there is no guarantee that the runtime system will notice whether any given computation is guaranteed to terminate or not.
Constructors
NonTermination
show/hide Instances
data NestedAtomically Source
Thrown when the program attempts to call atomically, from the stm package, inside another call to atomically.
Constructors
NestedAtomically
show/hide Instances
data BlockedIndefinitelyOnMVar Source
The thread is blocked on an MVar, but there are no other references to the MVar so it can't ever continue.
Constructors
BlockedIndefinitelyOnMVar
show/hide Instances
data BlockedIndefinitelyOnSTM Source
The thread is waiting to retry an STM transaction, but there are no other references to any TVars involved, so it can't ever continue.
Constructors
BlockedIndefinitelyOnSTM
show/hide Instances
data Deadlock Source
There are no runnable threads, so the program is deadlocked. The Deadlock exception is raised in the main thread only.
Constructors
Deadlock
show/hide Instances
data NoMethodError Source
A class method without a definition (neither a default definition, nor a definition in the appropriate instance) was called. The String gives information about which method it was.
Constructors
NoMethodError String
show/hide Instances
data PatternMatchFail Source
A pattern match failed. The String gives information about the source location of the pattern.
Constructors
PatternMatchFail String
show/hide Instances
data RecConError Source
An uninitialised record field was used. The String gives information about the source location where the record was constructed.
Constructors
RecConError String
show/hide Instances
data RecSelError Source
A record selector was applied to a constructor without the appropriate field. This can only happen with a datatype with multiple constructors, where some fields are in one constructor but not another. The String gives information about the source location of the record selector.
Constructors
RecSelError String
show/hide Instances
data RecUpdError Source
A record update was performed on a constructor without the appropriate field. This can only happen with a datatype with multiple constructors, where some fields are in one constructor but not another. The String gives information about the source location of the record update.
Constructors
RecUpdError String
show/hide Instances
data ErrorCall Source
This is thrown when the user calls error. The String is the argument given to error.
Constructors
ErrorCall String
show/hide Instances
Throwing exceptions
throwIO :: Exception e => e -> IO aSource

A variant of throw that can only be used within the IO monad.

Although throwIO has a type that is an instance of the type of throw, the two functions are subtly different:

 throw e   `seq` x  ===> throw e
 throwIO e `seq` x  ===> x

The first example will cause the exception e to be raised, whereas the second one won't. In fact, throwIO will only cause an exception to be raised when it is used within the IO monad. The throwIO variant should be used in preference to throw to raise an exception within the IO monad because it guarantees ordering with respect to other IO operations, whereas throw does not.

throw :: Exception e => e -> aSource
Throw an exception. Exceptions may be thrown from purely functional code, but may only be caught within the IO monad.
ioError :: IOError -> IO aSource
Raise an IOError in the IO monad.
throwTo :: Exception e => ThreadId -> e -> IO ()Source

throwTo raises an arbitrary exception in the target thread (GHC only).

throwTo does not return until the exception has been raised in the target thread. The calling thread can thus be certain that the target thread has received the exception. This is a useful property to know when dealing with race conditions: eg. if there are two threads that can kill each other, it is guaranteed that only one of the threads will get to kill the other.

Whatever work the target thread was doing when the exception was raised is not lost: the computation is suspended until required by another thread.

If the target thread is currently making a foreign call, then the exception will not be raised (and hence throwTo will not return) until the call has completed. This is the case regardless of whether the call is inside a block or not.

Important note: the behaviour of throwTo differs from that described in the paper "Asynchronous exceptions in Haskell" (http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/Papers/asynch-exns.htm). In the paper, throwTo is non-blocking; but the library implementation adopts a more synchronous design in which throwTo does not return until the exception is received by the target thread. The trade-off is discussed in Section 9 of the paper. Like any blocking operation, throwTo is therefore interruptible (see Section 5.3 of the paper).

There is no guarantee that the exception will be delivered promptly, although the runtime will endeavour to ensure that arbitrary delays don't occur. In GHC, an exception can only be raised when a thread reaches a safe point, where a safe point is where memory allocation occurs. Some loops do not perform any memory allocation inside the loop and therefore cannot be interrupted by a throwTo.

Blocked throwTo is fair: if multiple threads are trying to throw an exception to the same target thread, they will succeed in FIFO order.

Catching Exceptions
The catch functions
catchSource
:: Exception e
=> IO aThe computation to run
-> e -> IO aHandler to invoke if an exception is raised
-> IO a

This is the simplest of the exception-catching functions. It takes a single argument, runs it, and if an exception is raised the "handler" is executed, with the value of the exception passed as an argument. Otherwise, the result is returned as normal. For example:

   catch (readFile f)
         (\e -> do let err = show (e :: IOException)
                   hPutStr stderr ("Warning: Couldn't open " ++ f ++ ": " ++ err)
                   return "")

Note that we have to give a type signature to e, or the program will not typecheck as the type is ambiguous. While it is possible to catch exceptions of any type, see the previous section "Catching all exceptions" for an explanation of the problems with doing so.

For catching exceptions in pure (non-IO) expressions, see the function evaluate.

Note that due to Haskell's unspecified evaluation order, an expression may throw one of several possible exceptions: consider the expression (error "urk") + (1 `div` 0). Does the expression throw ErrorCall "urk", or DivideByZero?

The answer is "it might throw either"; the choice is non-deterministic. If you are catching any type of exception then you might catch either. If you are calling catch with type IO Int -> (ArithException -> IO Int) -> IO Int then the handler may get run with DivideByZero as an argument, or an ErrorCall "urk" exception may be propogated further up. If you call it again, you might get a the opposite behaviour. This is ok, because catch is an IO computation.

Note that the Prelude also exports a function called Prelude.catch with a similar type to Control.Exception.catch, except that the Prelude version only catches the IO and user families of exceptions (as required by Haskell 98).

We recommend either hiding the Prelude version of Prelude.catch when importing Control.Exception:

 import Prelude hiding (catch)

or importing Control.Exception qualified, to avoid name-clashes:

 import qualified Control.Exception as C

and then using C.catch

catchJustSource
:: Exception e
=> e -> Maybe bPredicate to select exceptions
-> IO aComputation to run
-> b -> IO aHandler
-> IO a

The function catchJust is like catch, but it takes an extra argument which is an exception predicate, a function which selects which type of exceptions we're interested in.

 catchJust (\e -> if isDoesNotExistErrorType (ioeGetErrorType e) then Just () else Nothing)
           (readFile f)
           (\_ -> do hPutStrLn stderr ("No such file: " ++ show f)
                     return "")

Any other exceptions which are not matched by the predicate are re-raised, and may be caught by an enclosing catch, catchJust, etc.

The handle functions
handle :: Exception e => (e -> IO a) -> IO a -> IO aSource

A version of catch with the arguments swapped around; useful in situations where the code for the handler is shorter. For example:

   do handle (\NonTermination -> exitWith (ExitFailure 1)) $
      ...
handleJust :: Exception e => (e -> Maybe b) -> (b -> IO a) -> IO a -> IO aSource
A version of catchJust with the arguments swapped around (see handle).
The try functions
try :: Exception e => IO a -> IO (Either e a)Source

Similar to catch, but returns an Either result which is (Right a) if no exception of type e was raised, or (Left ex) if an exception of type e was raised and its value is ex. If any other type of exception is raised than it will be propogated up to the next enclosing exception handler.

  try a = catch (Right `liftM` a) (return . Left)

Note that System.IO.Error also exports a function called System.IO.Error.try with a similar type to Control.Exception.try, except that it catches only the IO and user families of exceptions (as required by the Haskell 98 IO module).

tryJust :: Exception e => (e -> Maybe b) -> IO a -> IO (Either b a)Source
A variant of try that takes an exception predicate to select which exceptions are caught (c.f. catchJust). If the exception does not match the predicate, it is re-thrown.
onException :: IO a -> IO b -> IO aSource
Like finally, but only performs the final action if there was an exception raised by the computation.
The evaluate function
evaluate :: a -> IO aSource

Forces its argument to be evaluated to weak head normal form when the resultant IO action is executed. It can be used to order evaluation with respect to other IO operations; its semantics are given by

   evaluate x `seq` y    ==>  y
   evaluate x `catch` f  ==>  (return $! x) `catch` f
   evaluate x >>= f      ==>  (return $! x) >>= f

Note: the first equation implies that (evaluate x) is not the same as (return $! x). A correct definition is

   evaluate x = (return $! x) >>= return
The mapException function
mapException :: (Exception e1, Exception e2) => (e1 -> e2) -> a -> aSource
This function maps one exception into another as proposed in the paper "A semantics for imprecise exceptions".
Asynchronous Exceptions
Asynchronous exception control
block :: IO a -> IO aSource

Applying block to a computation will execute that computation with asynchronous exceptions blocked. That is, any thread which attempts to raise an exception in the current thread with Control.Exception.throwTo will be blocked until asynchronous exceptions are enabled again. There's no need to worry about re-enabling asynchronous exceptions; that is done automatically on exiting the scope of block.

Threads created by Control.Concurrent.forkIO inherit the blocked state from the parent; that is, to start a thread in blocked mode, use block $ forkIO .... This is particularly useful if you need to establish an exception handler in the forked thread before any asynchronous exceptions are received.

unblock :: IO a -> IO aSource
To re-enable asynchronous exceptions inside the scope of block, unblock can be used. It scopes in exactly the same way, so on exit from unblock asynchronous exception delivery will be disabled again.
blocked :: IO BoolSource
returns True if asynchronous exceptions are blocked in the current thread.
Assertions
assert :: Bool -> a -> aSource

If the first argument evaluates to True, then the result is the second argument. Otherwise an AssertionFailed exception is raised, containing a String with the source file and line number of the call to assert.

Assertions can normally be turned on or off with a compiler flag (for GHC, assertions are normally on unless optimisation is turned on with -O or the -fignore-asserts option is given). When assertions are turned off, the first argument to assert is ignored, and the second argument is returned as the result.

Utilities
bracketSource
:: IO acomputation to run first ("acquire resource")
-> a -> IO bcomputation to run last ("release resource")
-> a -> IO ccomputation to run in-between
-> IO c

When you want to acquire a resource, do some work with it, and then release the resource, it is a good idea to use bracket, because bracket will install the necessary exception handler to release the resource in the event that an exception is raised during the computation. If an exception is raised, then bracket will re-raise the exception (after performing the release).

A common example is opening a file:

 bracket
   (openFile "filename" ReadMode)
   (hClose)
   (\fileHandle -> do { ... })

The arguments to bracket are in this order so that we can partially apply it, e.g.:

 withFile name mode = bracket (openFile name mode) hClose
bracket_ :: IO a -> IO b -> IO c -> IO cSource
A variant of bracket where the return value from the first computation is not required.
bracketOnErrorSource
:: IO acomputation to run first ("acquire resource")
-> a -> IO bcomputation to run last ("release resource")
-> a -> IO ccomputation to run in-between
-> IO c
Like bracket, but only performs the final action if there was an exception raised by the in-between computation.
finallySource
:: IO acomputation to run first
-> IO bcomputation to run afterward (even if an exception was raised)
-> IO a
A specialised variant of bracket with just a computation to run afterward.
Calls for GHC runtime
recSelError :: Addr# -> aSource
recConError :: Addr# -> aSource
irrefutPatError :: Addr# -> aSource
runtimeError :: Addr# -> aSource
nonExhaustiveGuardsError :: Addr# -> aSource
patError :: Addr# -> aSource
noMethodBindingError :: Addr# -> aSource
nonTermination :: SomeExceptionSource
nestedAtomically :: SomeExceptionSource
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