Consider following C code. ``` int syscall_that_fails (int *errno_here) { *errno_here = 2; return -1; } ``` Now I write the haskell wrapper, first without any error checking. ``` module Complex where import Foreign import Foreign.C import Foreign.C.Types import Foreign.Storable foreign import ccall unsafe "complex.c syscall_that_fails" c_syscall_that_fails :: Ptr CInt -> IO CInt sysCall :: Int -> IO () sysCall i = allocaBytes (sizeOf (0 :: CInt)) $ \ptr -> c_syscall_that_fails ptr >> return () ``` Now I want to introduce some actual error checking, so at first I simply do ``` module Complex where import Control.Exception import Foreign import Foreign.C import Foreign.C.Types import Foreign.Storable foreign import ccall unsafe "complex.c syscall_that_fails" c_syscall_that_fails :: Ptr CInt -> IO CInt sysCall :: Int -> IO () sysCall i = allocaBytes (sizeOf (0 :: CInt)) $ \ptr -> do st <- c_syscall_that_fails ptr errno <- peekElemOff ptr 0 case st of (-1) -> throwIO $ userError $ "syscall: " ++ show errno _ -> return () ``` Now, I do not think it is a "user error", it is a real system call error that might or might not be already covered by System.IO.Error. In my case errno is 2, it is "No such file or directory", so it is covered by System.IO.Error and I may just use the library. But my C code may call whatever! What if System.IO does not cover that range of `errno`s? What if I want to distinguish between *my* errors and system errors? In such case I have to introduce my own way to do it. How do I do it? My first wild guess is to introduce my own exception, like this. ``` module Complex where import Control.Exception import Foreign import Foreign.C import Foreign.C.Types import Foreign.Storable data CException = LocalCallFailed { cexeption_errno :: Int , cexception_caller :: String } instance Show CException where show (LocalCallFailed errno caller) = caller ++ ": " ++ show errno instance Exception CException foreign import ccall unsafe "complex.c syscall_that_fails" c_syscall_that_fails :: Ptr CInt -> IO CInt sysCall :: Int -> IO () sysCall i = allocaBytes (sizeOf (0 :: CInt)) $ \ptr -> do st <- c_syscall_that_fails ptr errno <- peekElemOff ptr 0 case st of (-1) -> throwIO . LocalCallFailed (fromIntegral errno) $ "syscall" _ -> return () ``` And now I ask myself, what if allocaBytes fails? I looked on its code and it does ioError, thus, it will throwIO. If then I need to invoke sysCall, I can not use `try` anymore, because it is not determined what I will catch, LocalCallFailed or IOException. Next, what if I extend the `case of` clause to include some other errors, that are not related to system calls, but are my own? I try to recover, but can not come up with anything better than this... ``` module Complex where import Control.Exception import Foreign import Foreign.C import Foreign.C.Types import Foreign.Storable data CException = LocalCallFailed { cexeption_errno :: Int , cexception_caller :: String } | GenericIOException { genericioexception :: IOException } instance Show CException where show (LocalCallFailed errno caller) = caller ++ ": " ++ show errno show (GenericIOException e) = displayException e instance Exception CException ioExceptionToMe :: IO (Either IOException a) -> IO a ioExceptionToMe action = do e0 <- action case e0 of Left e -> throwIO . GenericIOException $ e Right a -> return a tryIO :: IO a -> IO a tryIO action = ioExceptionToMe $ try action foreign import ccall unsafe "complex.c syscall_that_fails" c_syscall_that_fails :: Ptr CInt -> IO CInt sysCall :: Int -> IO () sysCall i = tryIO $ allocaBytes (sizeOf (0 :: CInt)) $ \ptr -> do st <- c_syscall_that_fails ptr errno <- tryIO $ peekElemOff ptr 0 case st of (-1) -> throwIO . LocalCallFailed (fromIntegral errno) $ "syscall" _ -> return () ``` Now, this seems to be easily extendable. I can change LocalCallFailed to LocalSyscallFailed and then add something like LocalOwnFailed, which would account for some C error that is not attributed to system calls, and so on. But still, it seems very dumb, because of how I use tryIO. I have to use it on literally every haskell provided IO and... It just does not seem right.