Fluent C

Chapter 1. Error Handling

Error handling is a big part of writing software, and when it’s done poorly, the software becomes difficult to extend and to maintain. Programming languages like C++ or Java provide “Exceptions” and “Destructors” that make error handling easier. Such mechanisms are not natively available for C, and literature on good error handling in C is widely scattered over the internet.

This chapter provides collected knowledge on good error handling in the form of C error-handling patterns and a running example that applies the patterns. The patterns provide good practice design decisions and elaborate on when to apply them and which consequences they bring. For a programmer, these patterns remove the burden of making many fine-grained decisions. Instead, a programmer can rely on the knowledge presented in these patterns and use them as a starting point to write good code.

Figure 1-1 shows an overview of the patterns covered in this chapter and their relationships, and Table 1-1 provides a summary of the patterns.

Figure 1-1. Overview of patterns for error handling

Table 1-1. Patterns for error handling

Pattern name	Summary
Function Split	The function has several responsibilities, which makes the function hard to read and maintain. Therefore, split it up. Take a part of a function that seems useful on its own, create a new function with that, and call ...