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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] [RFC] Optional Catch Block Body
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2025 18:24:42 +0200
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Message-ID: <A06BBAD5-3C56-442C-8A8A-EB4D9C946CB8@cschneid.com>
From: cschneid@cschneid.com (Christian Schneider)

Am 31.07.2025 um 17:53 schrieb Rowan Tommins [IMSoP] =
<imsop.php@rwec.co.uk>:
> On 31/07/2025 14:46, Christian Schneider wrote:
>>> $fh =3D try fopen($filePath, 'w') ignore (FileLockedException);
>>>=20
>> First of all: I'm wary because partial error handling seems dangerous =
to mel do I know all possible Exception types and which ones should =
abort and which ones should continue?
>>=20
>=20
> That's kind of the point: it's for when you know how to handle some =
specific cases, but want *anything else* to abort.
> In this hypothetical example, the code is using an exclusive lock to =
avoid two processes writing to the file; it wants to gracefully handle =
the specific scenario of "some other process has the lock". If there's =
some other error, like "invalid file path", that *should not* be =
suppressed.
> But the current PHP I/O functions give no way to distinguish:
> $fh =3D @fopen($filePath, 'w');
> if ( $fh =3D=3D=3D false ) {
>     // probably something else had the lock; could also be an invalid =
file path, or a catastrophic disk failure =C2=AF\_(=E3=83=84)_/=C2=AF
> }

If you have to handle null afterwards (e.g. avoiding writing to invalid =
$fh) then the "ignore" version does not really help much IMHO

Realistically I think it would be something like

if ($fh =3D try fopen($filePath, 'w') ignore (FileLockedException)) {
	...
} [else
	...]

vs. currently

try {
	$fh =3D try fopen($filePath, 'w');
	...
} catch (FileLockedException) {
	[...]
}

which does not seem much clearer to me.

> I didn't intend to imply that this would replace all Warnings. Think =
of it more as replacing the "returns false on error" part of the fopen() =
signature.

... so you would replace false for (some) errors by Exceptions, that's =
what I meant. Plus having some stuff return false and some things throw =
Exceptions seems weird too, that's why I said "all" in the first place. =
But false/null vs. Exceptions is a different, much broader topic, let's =
skip that for now ;-)

Regards,
- Chris