From 1f23cfe0ef5b2634a7b911a8b6dc4eff7f78ba5d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jonathan Nieder Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2014 19:01:33 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] doc: document error handling functions and conventions Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano --- Documentation/technical/api-error-handling.txt | 75 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 75 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/technical/api-error-handling.txt diff --git a/Documentation/technical/api-error-handling.txt b/Documentation/technical/api-error-handling.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..fc68db126e --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/technical/api-error-handling.txt @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +Error reporting in git +====================== + +`die`, `usage`, `error`, and `warning` report errors of various +kinds. + +- `die` is for fatal application errors. It prints a message to + the user and exits with status 128. + +- `usage` is for errors in command line usage. After printing its + message, it exits with status 129. (See also `usage_with_options` + in the link:api-parse-options.html[parse-options API].) + +- `error` is for non-fatal library errors. It prints a message + to the user and returns -1 for convenience in signaling the error + to the caller. + +- `warning` is for reporting situations that probably should not + occur but which the user (and Git) can continue to work around + without running into too many problems. Like `error`, it + returns -1 after reporting the situation to the caller. + +Customizable error handlers +--------------------------- + +The default behavior of `die` and `error` is to write a message to +stderr and then exit or return as appropriate. This behavior can be +overridden using `set_die_routine` and `set_error_routine`. For +example, "git daemon" uses set_die_routine to write the reason `die` +was called to syslog before exiting. + +Library errors +-------------- + +Functions return a negative integer on error. Details beyond that +vary from function to function: + +- Some functions return -1 for all errors. Others return a more + specific value depending on how the caller might want to react + to the error. + +- Some functions report the error to stderr with `error`, + while others leave that for the caller to do. + +- errno is not meaningful on return from most functions (except + for thin wrappers for system calls). + +Check the function's API documentation to be sure. + +Caller-handled errors +--------------------- + +An increasing number of functions take a parameter 'struct strbuf *err'. +On error, such functions append a message about what went wrong to the +'err' strbuf. The message is meant to be complete enough to be passed +to `die` or `error` as-is. For example: + + if (ref_transaction_commit(transaction, &err)) + die("%s", err.buf); + +The 'err' parameter will be untouched if no error occured, so multiple +function calls can be chained: + + t = ref_transaction_begin(&err); + if (!t || + ref_transaction_update(t, "HEAD", ..., &err) || + ret_transaction_commit(t, &err)) + die("%s", err.buf); + +The 'err' parameter must be a pointer to a valid strbuf. To silence +a message, pass a strbuf that is explicitly ignored: + + if (thing_that_can_fail_in_an_ignorable_way(..., &err)) + /* This failure is okay. */ + strbuf_reset(&err); -- 2.11.4.GIT