Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!sdcsvax!ucbvax!unisoft!gethen!farren
From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How to Trap Runtime System Error under MSC?
Message-ID: <593@gethen.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 88 06:17:58 GMT
References: <11263@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland
Lines: 26

In article <11263@brl-adm.ARPA> MHARRIS@G.BBN.COM writes:
>Can anyone tell me how to trap Microsoft C "serious runtime errors", e.g.,
>"Error 2000 Stack Overflow", before they print to the terminal screen?
>I want to deal with them myself in the code that evoked the offending
>.EXE file (with system()).  Thanks.

Without hacking the source code to the runtime package, you can't, for
the most part.  The 'Stack Overflow' messages are a special case, as
they are produced by a routine called, I believe, _chkstk, and you 
could easily replace this routine with one of your own.  The thing
to keep in mind, though, is that the error detection embedded in the
runtime package is designed to allow the code to gracefully recover
from disastrous errors, under which there would be no guarantee that
YOUR code would execute properly, if at all.  Stack checking, for
example, is invoked on entry to a function, and simply determines if
there is enough room on the stack for allocation of all the auto
variables.  While you could write a replacement routine that 'grew'
the stack, you would have to ensure that that routine did not use
the existing stack, or you would be setting yourself up for a royal
fall.  Similar constraints apply for other runtime errors.

-- 
Michael J. Farren             | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just 
{ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}!     | dogmatize it!  Reflect on it and re-evaluate
        unisoft!gethen!farren | it.  You may want to change your mind someday."
gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame