Magick::Exception Classes

Exception represents the base class of objects thrown when Magick++reports an error. Magick++ throws C++ exceptions synchronous with the operation where the error occurred. This allows errors to be trapped within the enclosing code (perhaps the code to process a single image) while allowing the code to be written with a simple coding style.

A try/catch block should be placed around any sequence of operations which can be considered an important body of work. For example, if your program processes lists of images and some of these images may be defective, by placing the try/catch block around the entire sequence of code that processes one image (including instantiating the image object), you can minimize the overhead of error checking while ensuring that all objects created to deal with that object are safely destroyed (C++ exceptions unroll the stack until the enclosing try block, destroying any created objects).

The pseudo code for the main loop of your program may look like:

for infile in list
{
  try {
    // Construct an image instance first so that we don't have to worry
    // about object construction failure due to a minor warning exception
    // being thrown.
    Magick::Image image; 
    try {
      // Try reading image file
      image.read(infile);
    }
    catch( Magick::WarningCoder &warning )
    {
      // Process coder warning while loading file (e.g. TIFF warning)
      // Maybe the user will be interested in these warnings (or not).
      // If a warning is produced while loading an image, the image
      // can normally still be used (but not if the warning was about
      // something important!)
      cerr << “Coder Warning: “ << warning.what() << endl;
    }
    catch( Magick::Warning &warning )
    {
      // Handle any other Magick++ warning.
      cerr << “Warning: “ << warning.what() << endl;
    }
    catch( Magick::BlobError &error ) 
    { 
      // Process Magick++ file open error
      cerr << “Error: “ << error.what() << endl;
      continue; // Try next image.
    }
    try {
      image.rotate(90);
      image.write(“outfile”);
    }
    catch ( Magick::Exception & error)
    {
       // Handle problem while rotating or writing outfile.
       cerr << “Caught Magick++ exception: “ << error.what() << endl;
    }
  }
  catch( std::exception &error ) 
  { 
     // Process any other exceptions derived from standard C++ exception
     err << “Caught C++ STD exception: “ << error.what() << endl;
  } 
  catch( ... ) 
  { 
    // Process *any* exception (last-ditch effort). There is not a lot
    // you can do here other to retry the operation that failed, or exit
    // the program. 
  }
}

The desired location and number of try/catch blocks in your program depends how sophisticated its error handling must be. Very simple programs may use just one try/catch block.

The Exception class is derived from the C++ standard exception class. This means that it contains a C++ string containing additional information about the error (e.g to display to the user). Obtain access to this string via the what() method.  For example:

 catch( Exception &error_ )
    {
      cout << "Caught exception: " << error_.what() << endl;
    }

The classes Warning and Error derive from the Exception class. Exceptions derived from Warning are thrown to represent non-fatal errors which may effect the completeness or quality of the result (e.g. one image provided as an argument to montage is defective). In most cases, a Warning exception may be ignored by catching it immediately, processing it (e.g. printing a diagnostic) and continuing on. Exceptions derived from Error are thrown to represent fatal errors that can not produce a valid result (e.g. attempting to read a file which does not exist).

The specific derived exception classes are shown in the following tables:

Warning Sub-Classes

Warning

Warning Description

WarningUndefined

Unspecified warning type.

WarningBlob

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningCache

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningCoder

Warnings issued by some coders.

WarningConfigure

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningCorruptImage

Warning issued when an image is determined to be corrupt.

WarningDelegate

Warnings reported by the delegate (interface to external programs) subsystem.

WarningDraw

Warnings reported by the rendering subsystem.

WarningFileOpen

Warning reported when The image file could not be opened (permission problem, wrong file type, or does not exist).

WarningImage

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningMissingDelegate

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningModule

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningMonitor

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningOption

Warning reported when an option is malformed or out of range.

WarningRegistry

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningResourceLimit

Warning reported when a program resource is exhausted (e.g. not enough memory).

WarningStream

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningType

NOT CURRENTLY USED

WarningXServer

Warnings reported by the X11 subsystem.


Error Sub-Classes

Error

Error Description

ErrorUndefined

Unspecified error type.

ErrorBlob

Error reported by BLOB I/O subsystem.

ErrorCache

Error reported by the pixel cache subsystem.

ErrorCoder

Error reported by coders (image format support).

ErrorConfigure

Errors reported while loading configuration files.

ErrorCorruptImage

Error reported when the image file is corrupt.

ErrorDelegate

Errors reported by the delegate (interface to external programs) subsystem.

ErrorDraw

Error reported while drawing on image.

ErrorFileOpen

Error reported when the image file can not be opened.

ErrorImage

Errors reported while drawing.

ErrorMissingDelegate

Error reported when an add-on library or program is necessary in order to support the requested operation.

ErrorModule

Errors reported by the module loader subsystem.

ErrorMonitor

NOT CURRENTLY USED

ErrorOption

Error reported when an option is malformed or out of range.

ErrorRegistry

Errors reported by the image/BLOB registry subsystem.

ErrorResourceLimit

Error reported when a program resource is exhausted (e.g. not enough memory).

ErrorStream

Errors reported by the pixel stream subsystem.

ErrorType

Errors reported by the type (font) rendering subsystem.

ErrorXServer

Errors reported by the X11 subsystem.