Error Handling In Context Managers

In various Lisps, there's a semi-common pattern of context wrapping with error handling. You have a situation in which you want to do something, and in the process bind some external resource, then free the resource afterwards.

(let* ((resource (open-resource foo))
       (result (progn
		 (bar)
		 (baz)
		 (mumble))))
  (close-resource resource)
  (delete-resource-from-disk resource)
  result)

You can write a relatively simple wrapper macro for this situation.

(defmacro with-resource ((name target) &body body)
  (let ((result (gensym)))
    `(let* ((,name (open-resource ,target))
	    (,result (progn ,@body)))
       (close-resource resource)
       (delete-resource-from-disk resource)
       ,result)))

With that definition, you can instead write.

(with-resource (resource foo)
  (bar)
  (mumble (baz resource)))

Ok, but what if the code you've written throws an error somehow?

(with-resource (resource foo)
  (bar)
  (error "Arbitrary Explosion")
  (mumble (baz resource)))

Your routine doesn't complete, but also, the claimed resource never gets freed afterwards. You could fix this by just always wrapping the stuff you wrap with with-resource in some error-trapping. ignore-errors/handler-case/handler-bind depending on the specific situation.

(with-resource (resource foo)
  (ignore-errors
    (bar)
    (error "Arbitrary Explosion")
    (mumble (baz resource))))

However, it'd still be nice to be more responsible as a macro developer and do the right thing with the bound resource without depending on your user doing the right thing. The solution is unwind-protect ¹.

(defmacro with-resource ((name target) &body body)
  (let ((result (gensym)))
    `(let* ((,name (open-resource ,target)))
       (unwind-protect
	    (let ((,result (ignore-errors (progn ,@body))))
	      (resolve-resource resource)
	      ,result)
	 (close-resource resource)
	 (delete-resource-from-disk resource)))))

When you're deaing with deploying micro-services, it sometimes gets a bit trickier. You generally want some central log/diagnostic server to be notified of the error condition. That's not a situation where you want something to happen regardless of error presence; it's a situation where you want something different to happen on error. For a concrete example, imagine needing to do something locally that involves downloading, poking, and then deletin a file from a URL. unwind-protect could still help, but it'd be only part of the story.

(defmacro with-pdf-from-uri ((path uri) &body body)
  (let ((result (gensym)))
    `(handler-case
	 (let ((,result (http-request uri))
	       (,path (with-output-to-temporary-file (s) (write (http-body ,result) :stream s))))
	   (unwind-protect
		(progn ,@body)
	     (delete-file))
	   (write-to-disk))
       (http-error (e)
	 (remote-log "Failed to download PDF")
	 (error e))
       (cannot-create-temporary-file (e)
	 (remote-log "Failed to create tempfile")
	 (error e))
       (error (e)
	 (remote-log "An ancient evil stirs. Your lights flicker. In the distance, sirens." e)
	 (error e)))))

Off the top of my head, I'd write something like this, though there's possibly better ways of abstracting the situation.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

You can do something similar in Python too. For example

@contextmanager
def logged(tag):
    print(f"Starting a procedure <{tag}>...")
	yield
	print(f"Finished the procedure <{tag}>...")

>>> with logged("MY TEST"):
...     print("blah")
...
Starting a procedure <MY TEST>...
blah
Finished the procedure <MY TEST>...
>>>

And now, the point of this entire post, yes, you can wrap that yield in a try/catch and have it do what you're expecting.

@contextmanager
def logged(tag):
    print(f"Starting a procedure <{tag}>...")
    try:
        yield
        print("IT WORKED!")
    except:
        print("OH NO! ETERNAL DARKNESS AWAITS YOU!")
    print(f"Finished the procedure <{tag}>...")

Now you can do

>>> with logged("MY TEST"):
...     print("blah")
...
Starting a procedure <MY TEST>...
blah
IT WORKED!
Finished the procedure <MY TEST>...
>>> with logged("MY TEST"):
...     raise("EXPLOSIONS")
...
Starting a procedure <MY TEST>...
OH NO! ETERNAL DARKNESS AWAITS YOU!
Finished the procedure <MY TEST>...
>>>

Hopefully, you found that reassuring.

1. Incidentally, thank you to the readers who pointed this out. I left out what turned out to be a key piece of context from the real situation I was dealing with for the sake of expedience (this situation came up in a Python context in real life). I've added the relevant explanation; hopefully that clarifies everything (and I'm not being denser than I thought I was being).↩