The following code demonstrates a case where a checked exception, ExecutionException, is thrown by an operation and Clojure is wrapping it with RuntimeException.
Why is Clojure doing this? Is this normal? Clojure appears to be doing something different than Java would in this case. What is the idiomatic way to handle the actual exception, in this case Exception, that caused the failure?
user=> (def f (future (Thread/sleep 10000) (throw (Exception. "hello world"))))
#'user/f
user=> (.get f)
Exception hello world user/fn--318 (NO_SOURCE_FILE:81)
user=> (.printStackTrace *e)
java.lang.RuntimeException: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: java.lang.Exception: hello world
at clojure.lang.Util.runtimeException(Util.java:165)
at clojure.lang.Reflector.invokeMatchingMethod(Reflector.java:97)
at clojure.lang.Reflector.invokeNoArgInstanceMember(Reflector.java:316)
at user$eval320.invoke(NO_SOURCE_FILE:82)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.eval(Compiler.java:6465)
at clojure.lang.Compiler.eval(Compiler.java:6431)
at clojure.core$eval.invoke(core.clj:2795)
at clojure.main$repl$read_eval_print__5967.invoke(main.clj:244)
at clojure.main$repl$fn__5972.invoke(main.clj:265)
at clojure.main$repl.doInvoke(main.clj:265)
at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:421)
at clojure.main$repl_opt.invoke(main.clj:331)
at clojure.main$main.doInvoke(main.clj:427)
at clojure.lang.RestFn.invoke(RestFn.java:397)
at clojure.lang.Var.invoke(Var.java:397)
at clojure.lang.AFn.applyToHelper(AFn.java:159)
at clojure.lang.Var.applyTo(Var.java:518)
at clojure.main.main(main.java:37)
Caused by: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: java.lang.Exception: hello world
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerGet(FutureTask.java:222)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.get(FutureTask.java:83)
at clojure.core$future_call$reify__5684.get(core.clj:6064)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at clojure.lang.Reflector.invokeMatchingMethod(Reflector.java:92)
... 16 more
Caused by: java.lang.Exception: hello world
at user$fn__318.invoke(NO_SOURCE_FILE:81)
nil
at clojure.core$binding_conveyor_fn$fn__3713.invoke(core.clj:1817)
at clojure.lang.AFn.call(AFn.java:18)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:303)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:138)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
According to this link it seems clojure does not throw checked exceptions so I would assume clojure catches any that might be thrown and wraps it:
http://dev.clojure.org/display/doc/1.3
As for handling it idiomatically(?) in Java, then the old rules still apply. I would check if the exception wrapped in the ExecutionException was one of the checked exceptions I expected could happen, and handle them as I would in any other circumstance (read: emulate the otherwise compiler enforced try catch). If it wasnt, I would either wrap it in a runtime exception and throw it again or log it and swallow it depending on the situation.