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Imported from https://youtrack.roxen.com/issue/PIKE-11

Reported by KG Sterneberg kg@roxen.com

Running the following code:

int main(int argc, array(string) argv)
{
  array exceptions = ({
    Error.mkerror("Ett vanligt fel..."),
    MyException("Oh no! Something blew up."),
    MyError("This is my error"),
    "hej hopp gallop",
    });
  foreach (exceptions, mixed obj) {
    handle_error(obj);
  }
  return 0;
}

variant void handle_error(mixed e) {
  werror("Handle an error of unknown type: %O\n", e);
}

variant void handle_error(MyException e) {
   werror("Handle an MyException: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

variant void handle_error(Error.Generic e) {
  werror("Handle an Error.Generic: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

variant void handle_error(MyError e) {
   werror("Handle an MyError: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

class MyException {
  inherit Error.Generic;

  protected void create(string message) {
    ::create(message, backtrace());
  }

  public constant is_my_exception = true;
}

class MyError {
  inherit Error.Generic;

  protected void create(string message) {
    ::create(message, backtrace());
  }

  public constant is_my_error = true;
}

results in:

'>pike exception-test.pike Calling undefined function. exception-test.pike:27: /main()->handle_error(_static_modules.Builtin()->GenericError("Ett vanligt fel...")) exception-test.pike:15: /main()->handle_error() exception-test.pike:10: /main()->main(1,({"/Users/kg/dev/learning/pike/exception-test.pike"}))

Just by switching the order of the handle_error variants lite this:

variant void handle_error(mixed e) {
  werror("Handle an error of unknown type: %O\n", e);
}

variant void handle_error(MyException e) {
   werror("Handle an MyException: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

variant void handle_error(MyError e) {
   werror("Handle an MyError: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

variant void handle_error(Error.Generic e) {
  werror("Handle an Error.Generic: %s\n", describe_error(e));
}

will make the program work:

'>pike exception-test.pike Handle an Error.Generic: Ett vanligt fel... Handle an MyException: Oh no! Something blew up. Handle an MyError: This is my error Handle an error of unknown type: "hej hopp gallop"

This behaviour is dangerous and a potential source of bugs that can be hard do discover.

P.S. Moving the deklarations of MyException and MyError above the main-function also solves the problem.