Exceptions - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Description: Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

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### 8.7 Exceptions

GNU Objective-C provides exception support built into the language, as in the following example:

           @try {
             ...
                @throw expr;
             ...
           }
           @catch (AnObjCClass *exc) {
             ...
               @throw expr;
             ...
               @throw;
             ...
           }
           @catch (AnotherClass *exc) {
             ...
           }
           @catch (id allOthers) {
             ...
           }
           @finally {
             ...
               @throw expr;
             ...
           }

The `@throw` statement may appear anywhere in an Objective-C or Objective-C++ program; when used inside of a `@catch` block, the `@throw` may appear without an argument (as shown above), in which case the object caught by the `@catch` will be rethrown.

Note that only (pointers to) Objective-C objects may be thrown and caught using this scheme. When an object is thrown, it will be caught by the nearest `@catch` clause capable of handling objects of that type, analogously to how `catch` blocks work in C++ and Java. A `@catch(id ...)` clause (as shown above) may also be provided to catch any and all Objective-C exceptions not caught by previous `@catch` clauses (if any).

The `@finally` clause, if present, will be executed upon exit from the immediately preceding `@try ... @catch` section. This will happen regardless of whether any exceptions are thrown, caught or rethrown inside the `@try ... @catch` section, analogously to the behavior of the `finally` clause in Java.

There are several caveats to using the new exception mechanism:

- The `-fobjc-exceptions` command line option must be used when compiling Objective-C files that use exceptions.
- With the GNU runtime, exceptions are always implemented as “native” exceptions and it is recommended that the `-fexceptions` and `-shared-libgcc` options are used when linking.
- With the NeXT runtime, although currently designed to be binary compatible with `NS_HANDLER`-style idioms provided by the `NSException` class, the new exceptions can only be used on Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and later systems, due to additional functionality needed in the NeXT Objective-C runtime.
- As mentioned above, the new exceptions do not support handling types other than Objective-C objects. Furthermore, when used from Objective-C++, the Objective-C exception model does not interoperate with C++ exceptions at this time. This means you cannot `@throw` an exception from Objective-C and `catch` it in C++, or vice versa (i.e., `throw ... @catch`).