NAME

Exception::Class::Base - A base class for exception objects

VERSION

version 1.32

SYNOPSIS

  use Exception::Class 'MyException';

  eval { MyException->throw( error => 'I feel funny.' ) };

  print $@->error();

DESCRIPTION

This class is the base class for all exceptions created by Exception::Class. It provides a number of methods for getting information about the exception.

METHODS

MyException->Trace($boolean)

Each Exception::Class::Base subclass can be set individually to include a stacktrace when the as_string method is called. The default is to not include a stacktrace. Calling this method with a value changes this behavior. It always returns the current value (after any change is applied).

This value is inherited by any subclasses. However, if this value is set for a subclass, it will thereafter be independent of the value in Exception::Class::Base.

Do not call this on the Exception::Class::Base class directly or you'll change it for all exception classes that use Exception::Class, including ones created in modules you don't control.

This is a class method, not an object method.

MyException->NoRefs($boolean)

When a Devel::StackTrace object is created, it walks through the stack and stores the arguments which were passed to each subroutine on the stack. If any of these arguments are references, then that means that the Devel::StackTrace ends up increasing the refcount of these references, delaying their destruction.

Since Exception::Class::Base uses Devel::StackTrace internally, this method provides a way to tell Devel::StackTrace not to store these references. Instead, Devel::StackTrace replaces references with their stringified representation.

This method defaults to true. As with Trace(), it is inherited by subclasses but setting it in a subclass makes it independent thereafter.

Do not call this on the Exception::Class::Base class directly or you'll change it for all exception classes that use Exception::Class, including ones created in modules you don't control.

MyException->RespectOverload($boolean)

When a Devel::StackTrace object stringifies, by default it ignores stringification overloading on any objects being dealt with.

Since Exception::Class::Base uses Devel::StackTrace internally, this method provides a way to tell Devel::StackTrace to respect overloading.

This method defaults to false. As with Trace(), it is inherited by subclasses but setting it in a subclass makes it independent thereafter.

Do not call this on the Exception::Class::Base class directly or you'll change it for all exception classes that use Exception::Class, including ones created in modules you don't control.

MyException->MaxArgLength($boolean)

When a Devel::StackTrace object stringifies, by default it displays the full argument for each function. This parameter can be used to limit the maximum length of each argument.

Since Exception::Class::Base uses Devel::StackTrace internally, this method provides a way to tell Devel::StackTrace to limit the length of arguments.

This method defaults to 0. As with Trace(), it is inherited by subclasses but setting it in a subclass makes it independent thereafter.

Do not call this on the Exception::Class::Base class directly or you'll change it for all exception classes that use Exception::Class, including ones created in modules you don't control.

MyException->Fields

This method returns the extra fields defined for the given class, as an array.

Do not call this on the Exception::Class::Base class directly or you'll change it for all exception classes that use Exception::Class, including ones created in modules you don't control.

MyException->throw( $message )

MyException->throw( message => $message )

MyException->throw( error => $error )

This method creates a new object with the given error message. If no error message is given, this will be an empty string. It then dies with this object as its argument.

This method also takes a show_trace parameter which indicates whether or not the particular exception object being created should show a stacktrace when its as_string() method is called. This overrides the value of Trace() for this class if it is given.

The frames included in the trace can be controlled by the ignore_class and ignore_package parameters. These are passed directly to Devel::Stacktrace's constructor. See Devel::Stacktrace for more details.

If only a single value is given to the constructor it is assumed to be the message parameter.

Additional keys corresponding to the fields defined for the particular exception subclass will also be accepted.

MyException->new(...)

This method takes the same parameters as throw(), but instead of dying simply returns a new exception object.

This method is always called when constructing a new exception object via the throw() method.

MyException->description()

Returns the description for the given Exception::Class::Base subclass. The Exception::Class::Base class's description is "Generic exception" (this may change in the future). This is also an object method.

$exception->rethrow()

Simply dies with the object as its sole argument. It's just syntactic sugar. This does not change any of the object's attribute values. However, it will cause caller() to report the die as coming from within the Exception::Class::Base class rather than where rethrow was called.

Of course, you always have access to the original stacktrace for the exception object.

$exception->message()

$exception->error()

Returns the error/message associated with the exception.

$exception->pid()

Returns the pid at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->uid()

Returns the real user id at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->gid()

Returns the real group id at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->euid()

Returns the effective user id at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->egid()

Returns the effective group id at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->time()

Returns the time in seconds since the epoch at the time the exception was thrown.

$exception->package()

Returns the package from which the exception was thrown.

$exception->file()

Returns the file within which the exception was thrown.

$exception->line()

Returns the line where the exception was thrown.

$exception->trace()

Returns the trace object associated with the object.

$exception->show_trace($boolean)

This method can be used to set whether or not a stack trace is included when the as_string method is called or the object is stringified.

$exception->as_string()

Returns a string form of the error message (something like what you'd expect from die). If the class or object is set to show traces then then the full trace is also included. The result looks like Carp::confess().

$exception->full_message()

Called by the as_string() method to get the message. By default, this is the same as calling the message() method, but may be overridden by a subclass. See below for details.

LIGHTWEIGHT EXCEPTIONS

A lightweight exception is one which records no information about its context when it is created. This can be achieved by setting $class->NoContextInfo() to a true value.

You can make this the default for a class of exceptions by setting it after creating the class:

  use Exception::Class (
      'LightWeight',
      'HeavyWeight',
  );

  LightWeight->NoContextInfo(1);

A lightweight exception does have a stack trace object, nor does it record the time, pid, uid, euid, gid, or egid. It only has a message.

OVERLOADING

Exception::Class::Base objects are overloaded so that stringification produces a normal error message. This just calls the $exception->as_string() method described above. This means that you can just print $@ after an eval and not worry about whether or not its an actual object. It also means an application or module could do this:

 $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { Exception::Class::Base->throw( error => join '', @_ ); };

and this would probably not break anything (unless someone was expecting a different type of exception object from die()).

OVERRIDING THE as_string METHOD

By default, the as_string() method simply returns the value message or error param plus a stack trace, if the class's Trace() method returns a true value or show_trace was set when creating the exception.

However, once you add new fields to a subclass, you may want to include those fields in the stringified error.

Inside the as_string() method, the message (non-stack trace) portion of the error is generated by calling the full_message() method. This can be easily overridden. For example:

  sub full_message {
      my $self = shift;

      my $msg = $self->message;

      $msg .= " and foo was " . $self->foo;

      return $msg;
  }

AUTHOR

  Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2010 by Dave Rolsky.

This is free software, licensed under:

  The Artistic License 2.0

cpanm Exception::Class

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Exception::Class