Rerunning After an Exception

Credit: Steve Arneil

Problem

You want to rerun some code that raised an exception, having (hopefully) fixed the problem that caused it in the first place.

Solution

Retry the code that failed by executing a retry statement within a rescue clause of a code block. retry reruns the block from the beginning.

Heres a demonstration of the retry statement. The first time the code block runs, it raises an exception. The exception is rescued, the problem is "fixed," and the code runs to completion the second time:

	def rescue_and_retry
	 error_fixed = false
	 begin
	 puts I am before the raise in the begin block.
	 raise An error has occurred! unless error_fixed
	 puts I am after the raise in the begin block.
	 rescue
	 puts An exception was thrown! 
Retrying…
		error_fixed = true
		retry
	 end
	 puts I am after the begin block.
	end
	rescue_and_retry
	# I am before the raise in the begin block.
	# An exception was thrown! 
Retrying…
	# I am before the raise in the begin block.
	# I am after the raise in the begin block.
	# I am after the begin block.

Discussion

Heres a method, check_connection, that checks if you are connected to the Internet. It will try to connect to a url up to max_tries times. This method uses a retry clause to retry connecting until it successfully completes a connection, or until it runs out of tries:

	require open-uri

	def check_connection(max_tries=2, url=http://www.ruby-lang.org/)
	 tries = 0
	 begin
	 tries += 1
	 puts Checking connection…
	 open(url) { puts Connection OK. }
	 rescue Exception
	 puts Connection not OK!
	 retry unless tries >= max_tries
	 end
	end

	check_connection
	# Checking connection…
	# Connection OK.

	check_connection(2, http://this.is.a.fake.url/)
	# Checking connection…
	# Connection not OK!
	# Checking connection…
	# Connection not OK!

See Also

• Recipe 17.2, "Raising an Exception"
• Recipe 17.3, "Handling an Exception"