Explain the "no-error" io::Error case

Fundamentally, querying the OS for error codes is a process
that is deeply subject to the whims of chance and fortune.
We can account for OS, but not for every combination of platform APIs.
A compiled binary may not recognize new errors introduced years later.
We should clarify a few especially odd situations, and what they mean:
We can effectively promise nothing.

This allows removing mention of ErrorKind::Uncategorized.
That error variant is hidden quite deliberately, so we
should not explicitly mention it.
This commit is contained in:
Jubilee Young 2023-01-16 19:27:18 -08:00
parent 4781233a77
commit 2d927cc194

View File

@ -359,7 +359,7 @@ pub enum ErrorKind {
// "Unusual" error kinds which do not correspond simply to (sets
// of) OS error codes, should be added just above this comment.
// `Other` and `Uncategorised` should remain at the end:
// `Other` and `Uncategorized` should remain at the end:
//
/// A custom error that does not fall under any other I/O error kind.
///
@ -565,6 +565,12 @@ pub(crate) const fn from_static_message(msg: &'static SimpleMessage) -> Error {
/// other standard library functions may call platform functions that may
/// (or may not) reset the error value even if they succeed.
///
/// If this is used in a case where no error has yet occurred in a program,
/// e.g. right after the beginning of `fn main`,
/// then in principle any possible Error may be returned.
/// The error code may have been set by a previous program (e.g. `execve`)
/// or the OS may have initialized it to an arbitrary, even random, value.
///
/// # Examples
///
/// ```
@ -871,6 +877,13 @@ pub fn downcast<E>(self) -> result::Result<Box<E>, Self>
/// Returns the corresponding [`ErrorKind`] for this error.
///
/// In some cases, the ErrorKind variant may not make much sense,
/// either because the situation does not actually involve an error, or
/// because of a new error code the standard library has not been taught.
/// See [`last_os_error`] for more details.
///
/// [`last_os_error`]: Error::last_os_error
///
/// # Examples
///
/// ```
@ -881,7 +894,8 @@ pub fn downcast<E>(self) -> result::Result<Box<E>, Self>
/// }
///
/// fn main() {
/// // Will print "Uncategorized".
/// // As no error has occurred, this may print anything!
/// // It likely prints a placeholder for unidentified (non-)errors.
/// print_error(Error::last_os_error());
/// // Will print "AddrInUse".
/// print_error(Error::new(ErrorKind::AddrInUse, "oh no!"));