# How hard should PHP try to finish a script? - Thread: https://externals.io/message/60869 - Original archive: https://news-web.php.net/php.internals/60869 - Started by Karoly Negyesi on 2012-06-17T19:06:03+00:00 - Messages: 3 - Reply by email to internals@lists.php.net - More for agents: search with https://externals.io/search.md?q={query} · JSON API at https://externals.io/api · documentation at https://externals.io/llms.txt --- ## #60869 — Karoly Negyesi — 2012-06-17T19:06:03+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/60869#60869 Hi, PHP often throws fatal errors when it could throw an exception. Take PHP Fatal error: Non-abstract method foo::bar() must contain body this error for example. It would be possible to mark this class as 'invalid' instead and when doing a new foo , throw an exception. Or if you try really hard then only the method call should throw an exception. Or, I was extending ReflectionClass and got Fatal error: ReflectionClass::getFileName(): Internal error: Failed to retrieve the reflection object (same happens if you try serialzie / unserialzie on ReflectionClass as a comment in the manual points out). I could argue this is an exception and not a fatal. Let me quote documentation: Fatal run-time errors. These indicate errors that can not be recovered from, such as a memory allocation problem. Execution of the script is halted. I do not see the above or , indeed , most of fatals I see this sort of error. Sure, if a malloc call fails, the world has ended and it's time to die. Otherwise, could we just get an exception so that it can be handled ? Thanks Karoly "chx" Negyesi --- ## #60870 — sam.e.giles@gmail.com — 2012-06-17T19:13:10+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/60869#60870 · In reply to: #60869 Hi, I think the example of the abstract method not containing a body is a bad example, as it is fatal and would normally be caught at compilation in a compiled language. I think these sorts of errors shouldn't be catchable, although, I can see instances where it could be a useful interface but it is only for some edge cases such as loading some concrete implementation that your script has no prior knowledge about, if it's incorrect your application can't recover, but this can be avoided anyway I think. Sam Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone -----Original Message----- From: Karoly Negyesi Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:06:03 To: Subject: [PHP-DEV] How hard should PHP try to finish a script? Hi, PHP often throws fatal errors when it could throw an exception. Take PHP Fatal error: Non-abstract method foo::bar() must contain body this error for example. It would be possible to mark this class as 'invalid' instead and when doing a new foo , throw an exception. Or if you try really hard then only the method call should throw an exception. Or, I was extending ReflectionClass and got Fatal error: ReflectionClass::getFileName(): Internal error: Failed to retrieve the reflection object (same happens if you try serialzie / unserialzie on ReflectionClass as a comment in the manual points out). I could argue this is an exception and not a fatal. Let me quote documentation: Fatal run-time errors. These indicate errors that can not be recovered from, such as a memory allocation problem. Execution of the script is halted. I do not see the above or , indeed , most of fatals I see this sort of error. Sure, if a malloc call fails, the world has ended and it's time to die. Otherwise, could we just get an exception so that it can be handled ? Thanks Karoly "chx" Negyesi --- ## #60872 — John LeSueur — 2012-06-17T21:31:43+00:00 URL: https://externals.io/message/60869#60872 · In reply to: #60869 > Hi, > > PHP often throws fatal errors when it could throw an exception. > > Take PHP Fatal error: Non-abstract method foo::bar() must contain > body this error for example. It would be possible to mark this class > as 'invalid' instead and when doing a new foo , throw an exception. Or > if you try really hard then only the method call should throw an > exception. > > Or, I was extending ReflectionClass and got Fatal error: > ReflectionClass::getFileName(): Internal error: Failed to retrieve the > reflection object (same happens if you try serialzie / unserialzie on > ReflectionClass as a comment in the manual points out). I could argue > this is an exception and not a fatal. > > Let me quote documentation: > > Fatal run-time errors. These indicate errors that can not be recovered > from, such as a memory allocation problem. Execution of the script is > halted. > > I do not see the above or , indeed , most of fatals I see this sort of > error. Sure, if a malloc call fails, the world has ended and it's time > to die. Otherwise, could we just get an exception so that it can be > handled ? > > Thanks > > Karoly "chx" Negyesi > > -- > > > > This kind of thing has come up before, without resolution. There are two separate issues in your proposal: 1. Fatal errors that mean the script should stop executing, but don't actually reflect instability in the engine. 2. Throwing exceptions from PHP core. It seems to me that #2 is strongly opposed by a lot of people. I think most people here sympathize with #1, but it hasn't been important enough for anyone to actually do the work, and there hasn't been a proposal about how it should be done. In general, it requires an audit of every E_FATAL error thrown. Some can be changed to E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR. Some however, really should kill the script, but don't need to skip error handlers. These would need some new E_ constant, and a rule that when thrown, an error handler can be called, but the script will die after the error handler has finished. There's probably more to it than that, which is why there would need to be a RFC. I'm guessing that if someone wrote an RFC, and had a patch, it would be received well. Thanks, John LeSueur