Pack200 API throws exceptions of unspecified type

Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:12:24 -0700
To: Elliotte Harold <###@###.###>
CC: ###@###.###

Elliotte Harold wrote:

>> In Pack200.Packer the JavaDocs state that for an unknown attribute, "
>> The string ERROR means that the pack operation as a whole will fail,
>> with a suitable explanation." That's fine as far as it goes but it
>> doesn't go far enough. It does not tell me how the operation fails. In
>> particular does the method complete normally or does it throw an
>> exception? If an exception which one? An IOException or a
>> RuntimeException both seem possible here.


You're right. This should be specified in the API, and it's a bug that
it's not. It ought to be an IOException, but in fact the implementation
happens to throw an implementation-specific flavor of RuntimeException.


>> I have not yet been able to construct a test case that shows what the
>> JDK actually does here. If you could answer that question, it would be
>> appreciated. I did file a bug asking that this be clarified as well.


Here's an example:

--------
$JAVA_HOME/bin/pack200 -CSourceFile=error /tmp/foo.pack.gz /tmp/foo.jar
Exception in thread "main"
com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.Attribute$FormatException: class.SourceFile:
attribute not allowed in javax/swing/SwingBeanInfoBase
at
com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.ClassReader.readAttributes(ClassReader.java:335)
at com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.ClassReader.read(ClassReader.java:127)
at
com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.PackerImpl$DoPack.readClass(PackerImpl.java:486)
at com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.PackerImpl$DoPack.run(PackerImpl.java:460)
at com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.PackerImpl.pack(PackerImpl.java:73)
at com.sun.java.util.jar.pack.Driver.main(Driver.java:261)
--------