Can I try/catch a warning?

Question

I need to catch some warnings being thrown from some php native functions and then handle them.

Specifically:

array dns_get_record  ( string $hostname  [, int $type= DNS_ANY  [, array &$authns  [, array &$addtl  ]]] )

It throws a warning when the DNS query fails.

try/catch doesn't work because a warning is not an exception.

I now have 2 options:

1. set_error_handler seems like overkill because I have to use it to filter every warning in the page (is this true?);

2. Adjust error reporting/display so these warnings don't get echoed to screen, then check the return value; if it's false, no records is found for hostname.

What's the best practice here?

Answer 1

The solution that really works turned out to be setting simple error handler with E_WARNING parameter, like so:

set_error_handler("warning_handler", E_WARNING);
dns_get_record(...)
restore_error_handler();

function warning_handler($errno, $errstr) { 
// do something
}

Answer 2

You should probably try to get rid of the warning completely, but if that's not possible, you can prepend the call with @ (i.e. @dns_get_record(...)) and then use any information you can get to figure out if the warning happened or not.

Answer 3

I wanted to try/catch a warning, but at the same time keep the usual warning/error logging (e.g. in /var/log/apache2/error.log); for which the handler has to return false. However, since the "throw new..." statement basically interrupts the execution, one then has to do the "wrap in function" trick, also discussed in:

Is there a static way to throw exception in php

Or, in brief:

  function throwErrorException($errstr = null,$code = null, $errno = null, $errfile = null, $errline = null) {
    throw new ErrorException($errstr, 0, $errno, $errfile, $errline);
  }
  function warning_handler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline, array $errcontext) {
    return false && throwErrorException($errstr, 0, $errno, $errfile, $errline);
    # error_log("AAA"); # will never run after throw
    /* Do execute PHP internal error handler */
    # return false; # will never run after throw
  }
  ...
  set_error_handler('warning_handler', E_WARNING);
  ...
  try {
    mkdir($path, 0777, true);
  } catch (Exception $e) {
    echo $e->getMessage();
    // ...
  }

---

EDIT: after closer inspection, it turns out it doesn't work: the "return false && throwErrorException ..." will, basically, not throw the exception, and just log in the error log; removing the "false &&" part, as in "return throwErrorException ...", will make the exception throwing work, but will then not log in the error_log... I'd still keep this posted, though, as I haven't seen this behavior documented elsewhere.

Answer 4

I would only recommend using @ to suppress warnings when it's a straight forward operation (e.g. $prop = @($high/($width - $depth)); to skip division by zero warnings). However in most cases it's better to handle.

Answer 5

Be careful with the @ operator - while it suppresses warnings it also suppresses fatal errors. I spent a lot of time debugging a problem in a system where someone had written @mysql_query( '...' ) and the problem was that mysql support was not loaded into PHP and it threw a silent fatal error. It will be safe for those things that are part of the PHP core but please use it with care.

bob@mypc:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php > echo @something(); // this will just silently die...

No further output - good luck debugging this!

bob@mypc:~$ php -a
Interactive shell

php > echo something(); // lets try it again but don't suppress the error
PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function something() in php shell code on line 1
PHP Stack trace:
PHP   1. {main}() php shell code:0
bob@mypc:~$ 

This time we can see why it failed.

Answer 6

Set and restore error handler

One possibility is to set your own error handler before the call and restore the previous error handler later with restore_error_handler().

set_error_handler(function() { /* ignore errors */ });
dns_get_record();
restore_error_handler();

You could build on this idea and write a re-usable error handler that logs the errors for you.

set_error_handler([$logger, 'onSilencedError']);
dns_get_record();
restore_error_handler();

Turning errors into exceptions

You can use set_error_handler() and the ErrorException class to turn all php errors into exceptions.

set_error_handler(function($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline, array $errcontext) {
    // error was suppressed with the @-operator
    if (0 === error_reporting()) {
        return false;
    }

    throw new ErrorException($errstr, 0, $errno, $errfile, $errline);
});

try {
    dns_get_record();
} catch (ErrorException $e) {
    // ...
}

The important thing to note when using your own error handler is that it will bypass the error_reporting setting and pass all errors (notices, warnings, etc.) to your error handler. You can set a second argument on set_error_handler() to define which error types you want to receive, or access the current setting using ... = error_reporting() inside the error handler.

Suppressing the warning

Another possibility is to suppress the call with the @ operator and check the return value of dns_get_record() afterwards. But I'd advise against this as errors/warnings are triggered to be handled, not to be suppressed.