Taken from `Perl::Critic`:
A common idiom in perl for dealing with possible errors is to use `eval`
followed by a check of `$@`/`$EVAL_ERROR`:
eval {
...
};
if ($EVAL_ERROR) {
...
}
There's a problem with this: the value of `$EVAL_ERROR` (`$@`) can change
between the end of the `eval` and the `if` statement. The issue are object
destructors:
package Foo;
...
sub DESTROY {
...
eval { ... };
...
}
package main;
eval {
my $foo = Foo->new();
...
};
if ($EVAL_ERROR) {
...
}
Assuming there are no other references to `$foo` created, when the
`eval` block in `main` is exited, `Foo::DESTROY()` will be invoked,
regardless of whether the `eval` finished normally or not. If the `eval`
in `main` fails, but the `eval` in `Foo::DESTROY()` succeeds, then
`$EVAL_ERROR` will be empty by the time that the `if` is executed.
Additional issues arise if you depend upon the exact contents of
`$EVAL_ERROR` and both `eval`s fail, because the messages from both will
be concatenated.
Even if there isn't an `eval` directly in the `DESTROY()` method code,
it may invoke code that does use `eval` or otherwise affects
`$EVAL_ERROR`.
The solution is to ensure that, upon normal exit, an `eval` returns a
true value and to test that value:
# Constructors are no problem.
my $object = eval { Class->new() };
# To cover the possiblity that an operation may correctly return a
# false value, end the block with "1":
if ( eval { something(); 1 } ) {
...
}
eval {
...
1;
}
or do {
# Error handling here
};
Unfortunately, you can't use the `defined` function to test the result;
`eval` returns an empty string on failure.
Various modules have been written to take some of the pain out of
properly localizing and checking `$@`/`$EVAL_ERROR`. For example:
use Try::Tiny;
try {
...
} catch {
# Error handling here;
# The exception is in $_/$ARG, not $@/$EVAL_ERROR.
}; # Note semicolon.
"But we don't use DESTROY() anywhere in our code!" you say. That may be
the case, but do any of the third-party modules you use have them? What
about any you may use in the future or updated versions of the ones you
already use?
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