[HADOOP-16296] MiniKdc() throws a RuntimeException when it fails to create its workDir

• Type: Sub-task
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Haicheng Chen
• Created: 06/May/19 15:54
• Updated: 07/May/19 09:21

Description

Dear Hadoop developers, we are developing a tool to detect exception-related bugs in Java. Our prototype has spotted the following throw statement whose exception class and error message indicate different error conditions.

 

Version: Hadoop-3.1.2

File: HADOOP-ROOT/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-minikdc/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/minikdc/MiniKdc.java

Line: 223

throw new RuntimeException("Cannot create directory " + this.workDir);

 

RuntimeException is usually used to represent errors in the program logic (think of one of its subclasses, NullPointerException), while the error message indicates that MiniKdc() can't create the directory workDir. This mismatch could be a problem. For example, the callers may miss the case where MiniKdc() fails to create the directory. Or, the callers trying to handle other RuntimeException may accidentally (and incorrectly) handle the directory creation failure. Maybe throwing an IOException is better here.