Re: [PATCH 5/5] types: Add standard __ob_trap and __ob_wrap scalar types

From: Linus Torvalds

Date: Tue Mar 31 2026 - 16:59:16 EST


On Tue, 31 Mar 2026 at 13:31, Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> (Isn't this just an implicit "try"?)

Yes. And I think that's ok.

I think try/catch is broken for a few reasons, but the fact that catch
and try are tied together so closely is the main one. You can't "try"
inside a scope without having the "catch" inside the same scope.

So then the solution is to just move the try to the outermost layer,
and I think that's pretty much what everybody does.

But at that point, why not just move it *all* the way out, and make it
implicit and invisible?

Which is kind of exactly what your suggestion is all about, and that's
why I like it so much.

It *literally* fixes try/catch. It makes the only really valid usage
model just work better.

(There are other reasons I dislike try/catch too, the whole
"exceptions across function boundaries" being another one that your
model avoids).

Linus