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chainerror

chainerror provides an error backtrace without doing a real backtrace, so even after you strip your binaries, you still have the error backtrace.

Having nested function returning errors, the output doesn't tell where the error originates from.

use std::path::PathBuf;

type BoxedError = Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>;
fn read_config_file(path: PathBuf) -> Result<(), BoxedError> {
    // do stuff, return other errors
    let _buf = std::fs::read_to_string(&path)?;
    // do stuff, return other errors
    Ok(())
}

fn process_config_file() -> Result<(), BoxedError> {
    // do stuff, return other errors
    let _buf = read_config_file("foo.txt".into())?;
    // do stuff, return other errors
    Ok(())
}

fn main() {
    if let Err(e) = process_config_file() {
        eprintln!("Error:\n{:?}", e);
    }
}

This gives the output:

Error:
Os { code: 2, kind: NotFound, message: "No such file or directory" }

and you have no idea where it comes from.

With chainerror, you can supply a context and get a nice error backtrace:

use chainerror::Context as _;
use std::path::PathBuf;

type BoxedError = Box<dyn std::error::Error + Send + Sync>;
fn read_config_file(path: PathBuf) -> Result<(), BoxedError> {
    // do stuff, return other errors
    let _buf = std::fs::read_to_string(&path).context(format!("Reading file: {:?}", &path))?;
    // do stuff, return other errors
    Ok(())
}

fn process_config_file() -> Result<(), BoxedError> {
    // do stuff, return other errors
    let _buf = read_config_file("foo.txt".into()).context("read the config file")?;
    // do stuff, return other errors
    Ok(())
}

fn main() {
    if let Err(e) = process_config_file() {
        eprintln!("Error:\n{:?}", e);
    }
}

with the output:

Error:
examples/simple.rs:14:51: read the config file
Caused by:
examples/simple.rs:7:47: Reading file: "foo.txt"
Caused by:
Os { code: 2, kind: NotFound, message: "No such file or directory" }

chainerror uses .source() of std::error::Error along with #[track_caller] and Location to provide a nice debug error backtrace. It encapsulates all types, which have Display + Debug and can store the error cause internally.

Along with the Error<T> struct, chainerror comes with some useful helper macros to save a lot of typing.

chainerror has no dependencies!

Debug information is worth it!

Multiple Output Formats

chainerror supports multiple output formats, which can be selected with the different format specifiers:

  • {}: Display
func1 error calling func2
  • {:#}: Alternative Display
func1 error calling func2
Caused by:
  func2 error: calling func3
Caused by:
  (passed error)
Caused by:
  Error reading 'foo.txt'
Caused by:
  entity not found
  • {:?}: Debug
examples/example.rs:50:13: func1 error calling func2
Caused by:
examples/example.rs:25:13: Func2Error(func2 error: calling func3)
Caused by:
examples/example.rs:18:13: (passed error)
Caused by:
examples/example.rs:13:18: Error reading 'foo.txt'
Caused by:
Kind(NotFound)
  • {:#?}: Alternative Debug
Error<example::Func1Error> {
    occurrence: Some(
        "examples/example.rs:50:13",
    ),
    kind: func1 error calling func2,
    source: Some(
        Error<example::Func2Error> {
            occurrence: Some(
                "examples/example.rs:25:13",
            ),
            kind: Func2Error(func2 error: calling func3),
            source: Some(
                Error<chainerror::AnnotatedError> {
                    occurrence: Some(
                        "examples/example.rs:18:13",
                    ),
                    kind: (passed error),
                    source: Some(
                        Error<alloc::string::String> {
                            occurrence: Some(
                                "examples/example.rs:13:18",
                            ),
                            kind: "Error reading 'foo.txt'",
                            source: Some(
                                Kind(
                                    NotFound,
                                ),
                            ),
                        },
                    ),
                },
            ),
        },
    ),
}

Tutorial

Read the Tutorial

License

Licensed under either of

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.