Exception: Exception
Overview
Class Exception and its subclasses are used to communicate between Kernel.raise and rescue statements in begin ... end blocks.
An Exception object carries information about an exception:
- 
Its type (the exception’s class). 
- 
An optional descriptive message. 
- 
Optional backtrace information. 
Some built-in subclasses of Exception have additional methods: e.g., NameError#name.
Defaults
Two Ruby statements have default exception classes:
- 
raise: defaults to::RuntimeError.
- 
rescue: defaults to::StandardError.
Global Variables
When an exception has been raised but not yet handled (in rescue, ensure, at_exit and END blocks), two global variables are set:
- 
$!contains the current exception.
- 
$@contains its backtrace.
Custom Exceptions
To provide additional or alternate information, a program may create custom exception classes that derive from the built-in exception classes.
A good practice is for a library to create a single “generic” exception class (typically a subclass of ::StandardError or ::RuntimeError) and have its other exception classes derive from that class. This allows the user to rescue the generic exception, thus catching all exceptions the library may raise even if future versions of the library add new exception subclasses.
For example:
class MyLibrary
  class Error < ::StandardError
  end
  class WidgetError < Error
  end
  class FrobError < Error
  end
endTo handle both MyLibrary::WidgetError and MyLibrary::FrobError the library user can rescue MyLibrary::Error.
Built-In Exception Classes
The built-in subclasses of Exception are:
- 
- 
LoadError 
- 
NotImplementedError 
- 
SyntaxError 
 
- 
- 
- 
Interrupt 
 
- 
- 
- 
ArgumentError - 
UncaughtThrowError 
 
- 
- 
EncodingError 
- 
FiberError 
- 
IOError - 
EOFError 
 
- 
- 
IndexError - 
KeyError 
- 
StopIteration - 
ClosedQueueError 
 
- 
 
- 
- 
LocalJumpError 
- 
NameError - 
NoMethodError 
 
- 
- 
RangeError - 
FloatDomainError 
 
- 
- 
RegexpError 
- 
RuntimeError - 
FrozenError 
 
- 
- 
SystemCallError - 
Errno::* 
 
- 
- 
ThreadError 
- 
TypeError 
- 
ZeroDivisionError 
 
- 
- 
fatal 
Class Attribute Summary
- 
    
      .to_tty?  ⇒ Boolean 
    
    readonly
    Returns trueif exception messages will be sent to a tty.
Class Method Summary
- 
    
      .exception([string])  ⇒ Exception 
    
    With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. 
- 
    
      .new(msg = nil)  ⇒ Exception 
    
    constructor
    Construct a new Exceptionobject, optionally passing in a message.
Instance Method Summary
- 
    
      #==(obj)  ⇒ Boolean 
    
    Equality—If obj is not an Exception, returnsfalse.
- 
    
      #backtrace  ⇒ Array? 
    
    Returns any backtrace associated with the exception. 
- 
    
      #backtrace_locations  ⇒ Array? 
    
    Returns any backtrace associated with the exception. 
- 
    
      #cause  ⇒ Exception? 
    
    Returns the previous exception ($!) at the time this exception was raised. 
- 
    
      #exception([string])  ⇒ Exception 
    
    With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. 
- 
    
      #full_message(highlight: bool, order: [:top or :bottom])  ⇒ String 
    
    Returns formatted string of exception. 
- 
    
      #inspect  ⇒ String 
    
    Return this exception’s class name and message. 
- 
    
      #message  ⇒ String 
    
    Returns the result of invoking exception.to_s.
- 
    
      #set_backtrace(backtrace)  ⇒ Array 
    
    Sets the backtrace information associated with exc.
- 
    
      #to_s  ⇒ String 
    
    Returns exception’s message (or the name of the exception if no message is set). 
Constructor Details
    
      .new(msg = nil)  ⇒ Exception 
      .exception(msg = nil)  ⇒ Exception 
    
  
Exception 
      .exception(msg = nil)  ⇒ Exception 
    Construct a new Exception object, optionally passing in a message.
# File 'error.c', line 1174
static VALUE
exc_initialize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE arg;
    arg = (!rb_check_arity(argc, 0, 1) ? Qnil : argv[0]);
    return exc_init(exc, arg);
}
  Class Attribute Details
    .to_tty?  ⇒ Boolean  (readonly)  
Returns true if exception messages will be sent to a tty.
# File 'error.c', line 1244
static VALUE
exc_s_to_tty_p(VALUE self)
{
    return RBOOL(rb_stderr_tty_p());
}
  Class Method Details
    .exception([string])  ⇒ Exception   
With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. Otherwise, create a new exception object of the same class as the receiver, but with a message equal to string.to_str.
Instance Method Details
    #==(obj)  ⇒ Boolean   
Equality—If obj is not an Exception, returns false. Otherwise, returns true if exc and obj share same class, messages, and backtrace.
# File 'error.c', line 1524
static VALUE
exc_equal(VALUE exc, VALUE obj)
{
    VALUE mesg, backtrace;
    if (exc == obj) return Qtrue;
    if (rb_obj_class(exc) != rb_obj_class(obj)) {
	int state;
	obj = rb_protect(try_convert_to_exception, obj, &state);
	if (state || obj == Qundef) {
	    rb_set_errinfo(Qnil);
	    return Qfalse;
	}
	if (rb_obj_class(exc) != rb_obj_class(obj)) return Qfalse;
	mesg = rb_check_funcall(obj, id_message, 0, 0);
	if (mesg == Qundef) return Qfalse;
	backtrace = rb_check_funcall(obj, id_backtrace, 0, 0);
	if (backtrace == Qundef) return Qfalse;
    }
    else {
	mesg = rb_attr_get(obj, id_mesg);
	backtrace = exc_backtrace(obj);
    }
    if (!rb_equal(rb_attr_get(exc, id_mesg), mesg))
	return Qfalse;
    return rb_equal(exc_backtrace(exc), backtrace);
}
  #backtrace ⇒ Array?
Returns any backtrace associated with the exception. The backtrace is an array of strings, each containing either “filename:lineNo: in ‘method”’ or “filename:lineNo.”
def a
  raise "boom"
end
def b
  a()
end
begin
  b()
rescue => detail
  print detail.backtrace.join("\n")
endproduces:
prog.rb:2:in `a'
prog.rb:6:in `b'
prog.rb:10In the case no backtrace has been set, nil is returned
ex = StandardError.new
ex.backtrace
#=> nil# File 'error.c', line 1390
static VALUE
exc_backtrace(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE obj;
    obj = rb_attr_get(exc, id_bt);
    if (rb_backtrace_p(obj)) {
	obj = rb_backtrace_to_str_ary(obj);
	/* rb_ivar_set(exc, id_bt, obj); */
    }
    return obj;
}
  #backtrace_locations ⇒ Array?
Returns any backtrace associated with the exception. This method is similar to #backtrace, but the backtrace is an array of ::Thread::Backtrace::Location.
This method is not affected by #set_backtrace().
# File 'error.c', line 1438
static VALUE
exc_backtrace_locations(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE obj;
    obj = rb_attr_get(exc, id_bt_locations);
    if (!NIL_P(obj)) {
	obj = rb_backtrace_to_location_ary(obj);
    }
    return obj;
}
  
    #cause  ⇒ Exception?   
Returns the previous exception ($!) at the time this exception was raised. This is useful for wrapping exceptions and retaining the original exception information.
# File 'error.c', line 1503
static VALUE
exc_cause(VALUE exc)
{
    return rb_attr_get(exc, id_cause);
}
  
    #exception([string])  ⇒ Exception   
With no argument, or if the argument is the same as the receiver, return the receiver. Otherwise, create a new exception object of the same class as the receiver, but with a message equal to string.to_str.
# File 'error.c', line 1196
static VALUE
exc_exception(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    VALUE exc;
    argc = rb_check_arity(argc, 0, 1);
    if (argc == 0) return self;
    if (argc == 1 && self == argv[0]) return self;
    exc = rb_obj_clone(self);
    rb_ivar_set(exc, id_mesg, argv[0]);
    return exc;
}
  #full_message(highlight: bool, order: [:top or :bottom]) ⇒ String
Returns formatted string of exception. The returned string is formatted using the same format that Ruby uses when printing an uncaught exceptions to stderr.
If highlight is true the default error handler will send the messages to a tty.
order must be either of :top or :bottom, and places the error message and the innermost backtrace come at the top or the bottom.
The default values of these options depend on $stderr and its tty? at the timing of a call.
# File 'error.c', line 1268
static VALUE
exc_full_message(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE opt, str, emesg, errat;
    enum {kw_highlight, kw_order, kw_max_};
    static ID kw[kw_max_];
    VALUE args[kw_max_] = {Qnil, Qnil};
    rb_scan_args(argc, argv, "0:", &opt);
    if (!NIL_P(opt)) {
	if (!kw[0]) {
#define INIT_KW(n) kw[kw_##n] = rb_intern_const(#n)
	    INIT_KW(highlight);
	    INIT_KW(order);
#undef INIT_KW
	}
	rb_get_kwargs(opt, kw, 0, kw_max_, args);
	switch (args[kw_highlight]) {
	  default:
            rb_bool_expected(args[kw_highlight], "highlight");
	    UNREACHABLE;
	  case Qundef: args[kw_highlight] = Qnil; break;
	  case Qtrue: case Qfalse: case Qnil: break;
	}
	if (args[kw_order] == Qundef) {
	    args[kw_order] = Qnil;
	}
	else {
	    ID id = rb_check_id(&args[kw_order]);
	    if (id == id_bottom) args[kw_order] = Qtrue;
	    else if (id == id_top) args[kw_order] = Qfalse;
	    else {
		rb_raise(rb_eArgError, "expected :top or :bottom as "
			 "order: %+"PRIsVALUE, args[kw_order]);
	    }
	}
    }
    str = rb_str_new2("");
    errat = rb_get_backtrace(exc);
    emesg = rb_get_message(exc);
    rb_error_write(exc, emesg, errat, str, args[kw_highlight], args[kw_order]);
    return str;
}
  #inspect ⇒ String
Return this exception’s class name and message.
# File 'error.c', line 1334
static VALUE
exc_inspect(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE str, klass;
    klass = CLASS_OF(exc);
    exc = rb_obj_as_string(exc);
    if (RSTRING_LEN(exc) == 0) {
        return rb_class_name(klass);
    }
    str = rb_str_buf_new2("#<");
    klass = rb_class_name(klass);
    rb_str_buf_append(str, klass);
    rb_str_buf_cat(str, ": ", 2);
    rb_str_buf_append(str, exc);
    rb_str_buf_cat(str, ">", 1);
    return str;
}
  #message ⇒ String
Returns the result of invoking exception.to_s. Normally this returns the exception’s message or name.
# File 'error.c', line 1321
static VALUE
exc_message(VALUE exc)
{
    return rb_funcallv(exc, idTo_s, 0, 0);
}
  #set_backtrace(backtrace) ⇒ Array
Sets the backtrace information associated with exc. The #backtrace must be an array of ::String objects or a single ::String in the format described in #backtrace.
# File 'error.c', line 1482
static VALUE
exc_set_backtrace(VALUE exc, VALUE bt)
{
    return rb_ivar_set(exc, id_bt, rb_check_backtrace(bt));
}
  #to_s ⇒ String
Returns exception’s message (or the name of the exception if no message is set).
# File 'error.c', line 1217
static VALUE
exc_to_s(VALUE exc)
{
    VALUE mesg = rb_attr_get(exc, idMesg);
    if (NIL_P(mesg)) return rb_class_name(CLASS_OF(exc));
    return rb_String(mesg);
}