/* exceptions.h Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001 Red Hat, Inc. This file is part of Cygwin. This software is a copyrighted work licensed under the terms of the Cygwin license. Please consult the file "CYGWIN_LICENSE" for details. */ #ifndef _EXCEPTIONS_H #define _EXCEPTIONS_H #ifdef __cplusplus extern "C" { #endif /* __cplusplus */ /* Documentation on the innards of exception handling (i.e. from the perspective of a compiler implementor) apparently doesn't exist. Sigh. However, the following came from Onno Hovers The first pointer to the chain of handlers is in the thread environment block at FS:[0]. This chain has the following format: typedef struct __EXCEPTION_FRAME { struct __EXCEPTION_FRAME *Prev; /-* pointer to the previous frame *-/ PEXCEPTION_HANDLER Handler; /-* handler function *-/ } You register an exception handler in your compiler with this simple ASM sequence: PUSH _MyExceptionHandler PUSH FS:[0] MOV FS:[0],ESP An exception frame MUST be on the stack! The frame may have more fields and both Visual C++ and Borland C++ use more fields for themselves. When an exception occurs the system calls all handlers starting with the handler at FS:0, and then the previous etc. until one handler returns ExceptionContinueExecution, which is 0. If a handler does not want to handle the exception it should just return ExceptionContinueSearch, which is 1. The handler has the following parameters: ehandler ( PEXCEPTION_RECORD erecord, PEXCEPTION_FRAME myframe, PCONTEXT context, /-* context before and after *-/ PVOID dispatch) /-* something *-/ When a handler wants to handle the exception, it has some alternatives: -one is to do do something about the exception condition, like emulating an invalid instruction, mapping memory where there was a page fault, etc. If the handler wants to have the context of the thread that causes the exception changed, it should make that change in the context passed to the handler. -the second alternative is to call all exception handlers again, indicating that you want them to clean up. This way all the __finally blocks get executed. After doing that you change the context passed to the handler so the code starts executing in the except block. For this purpose you could call RtlUnwind. This (undocumented) function calls all exception handlers up to but not including the exception frame passed to it. If NULL is passed as exception frame RtlUnwind calls all exception handlers and then exits the process. The parameters to RtlUnwind are: RtlUnwind ( PEXCEPTION_FRAME endframe, PVOID unusedEip, PEXCEPTION_RECORD erecord, DWORD returnEax) You should set unusedEip to the address where RtlUnwind should return like this: PUSH 0 PUSH OFFSET ReturnUnwind PUSH 0 PUSH 0 CALL RtlUnwind ReturnUnwind: ..... If no EXCEPTION_RECORD is passed, RtlUnwind makes a default exception record. In any case, the ExceptionFlags part of this record has the EH_UNWINDING (=2), flag set. (and EH_EXIT_UNWIND (=4), when NULL is passed as the end frame.). The handler for a exception as well as a for unwinds may be executed in the thread causing the exception, but may also be executed in another (special exception) thread. So it is not wise to make any assumptions about that! As an alternative you may consider the SetUnhandledExceptionFilter API to install your own exception filter. This one is documented. */ /* The January 1994 MSJ has an article entitled "Clearer, More Comprehensive Error Processing with Win32 Structured Exception Handling". It goes into a teensy bit of detail of the innards of exception handling (i.e. what we have to do). */ typedef int (exception_handler) (EXCEPTION_RECORD *, void *, CONTEXT *, void *); typedef struct _exception_list { struct _exception_list *prev; exception_handler *handler; unsigned long stuff[8]; } exception_list; #ifdef __cplusplus }; #endif /* __cplusplus */ #endif /* _EXCEPTIONS_H */