[KAFKA-13978] Trigger UncaughtExceptionHandler for IllegalArgument and IllegalState exceptions

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Blocker
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 3.1.0, 3.2.0, 3.1.1
• Component/s: streams
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Ben
• Created: 10/Jun/22 13:41
• Updated: 11/Jul/24 01:42

Description

In KAFKA-12887 (PR) changes were made to prevent thrown IllegalStateException and IllegalArgumentExceptions from being passed to a registered exception handler.

 

I believe these changes should be reverted for the following reasons:

• Making this change is backwards incompatible with existing applications which may have expected those exceptions to be handled.

 

• Users can (and do!) throw these exceptions, often for legitimate reasons. For instance, IllegalArgumentException is thrown when a method is passed the wrong argument. This is exactly the type of uncaught exception a user would expect to be handled by the uncaught exception handler, rather than by the calling code.

 

• The change is inconsistent. Why only these two exceptions, and not all runtime exceptions?

 

• The change is not well documented. There are even tutorial resources which actually use these exceptions, for example here. If we make this change, it should be better communicated. As implemented, it is extremely surprising that this happens.

 

• Finally, what value is the change actually adding to the project? It restricts user freedom, increases complexity, and does not improve safety. We should only make a backwards-incompatible change like this if there is clear value in doing so.

 

As a note, reverting this is not (in my view) going to impact users negatively. It is unlikely many people depend on this functionality, and if they do, it should be easy to communicate in the release notes, and for them to adjust their code accordingly.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #12352