[Boost-users] catch(...) in thread_proxy

From: Jeremy Stanley (jeremy_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-04-13 14:07:32

I find the catch(...) in thread_proxy to be a real nuisance.  The only
thing I
can do to prevent threads from silently slipping away is to put a
catch(...)
inside my thread procedure, but when this is hit I have no idea what the
exception is or where it was thrown.  I could configure the debugger
(msvc71) to
break whenever an exception is thrown, but then I have to wade through
handled
exceptions in order to find the real error.

There was a discussion on this subject about eight months ago where the
consensus seemed to be get rid of the catch(...)--any progress on this
since 
then?  I notice the catch(...) is still present in CVS, which isn't
encouraging.

As a refresher, this approach won't help...

try
{
  thread_proc();
}
catch(...)
{
  exception_filter();  // ... because I don't have a stack trace here.
}

This sort of approach could be okay though:

if ( swallow_exceptions )
{
  try { thread_proc(); } catch(...) { whatever(); }
}
else
{
  thread_proc();
}

If swallow_exceptions were on by default, it wouldn't change behavior
unless the
programmer asked for it, perhaps using an optional parameter in the
thread and
thread_group constructors.