libexc

Small and portable ANSI-C exception handling library

Overview

Originally this library emerged in the context of a school project with the goal to extend the core C programming language with a lightweight and portable exception handling framework. The result of this idea was this small and portable fully ANSI-C implemented library. Because of this project was for education and learning purpose originally, it has not the claim to be fully operational and usable. Based on this please note that this library should not be used in other projects unless it is intended to be an education project or for learning reasons.

Usage

This library provides a basic set of keywords (= macros) you are probably already used for exception handling (definition: exception.h):

• EXC_TRY
• EXC_CATCH
• EXC_END
• EXC_FINALLY
• EXC_THROW
• EXC_DECLARE
• EXC_DEFINE

The exception handling with this library is much like in any other high level language like C++ too. Every exception handling block must begin with an EXC_TRY and end with an EXC_FINALLY. The keywords EXC_CATCH and EXC_DEFAULT are used to catch and handle thrown exceptions, while EXC_CATCH catchs only exceptions of a specific type EXC_DEFAULT catchs exceptions of any type. To throw an exception use the macro EXC_THROW.

#include <exception.h>

...

int fn(void)
{
  EXC_TRY
  {
    ...
    
    EXC_THROW(exception);
    
    ...
  }
  EXC_CATCH(exception)
  {
    ...
  }
  EXC_FINALLY
  {
    ...
  }
  EXC_END
  
  return 0;
}

...

There are some standart and system dependend exceptions defined in the header file excdefs.h. If you probably want to define custom exceptions use the macros EXC_DECLARE and EXC_DEFINE.

...

EXC_DECLARE(my_exception);
EXC_DEFINE(my_exception, my_exception_number, "my_exception_error_message");

...

For more informations about usage or implementation of the single macros view the header files exception.h and excdefs.h.

Multithreading

Attention, this library is not designed to work with multiple threads and so it is not thread-safe. If you using this library with multiple threads the behavior is undefined!

Portability

This library is fully implemented in ANSI-C and should compile in any ANSI-C compiler. Because of this library don't use any external libraries there are no special dependencies and it should be possible to port this library to any platform with an ANSI-C supported compiler.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

GNU General Public License or LICENSE for more details.

Forbidden

Hold Liable: Software is provided without warranty and the software author/license owner cannot be held liable for damages.