[cffi-devel] cffi-grovel: signal GROVEL-ERROR instead of CL:SIMPLE-ERROR

[Anton Vodonosov]

Hello.

In the cl-test-grid project we test how every library
in Quicklisp is compiled and also run some test suites.

Then we build reports, review regressions and submit bugs to library authors.

It is very often that machine where tests are run don't have
some foreign library, of don't have a C compiler. For libraries
using cffi-grovel it results in cl:simple-error: External process exited with code 1.
(example log: http://cl-test-grid.appspot.com/blob?key=1sisosse6j)

This kind of errors are not regressions, so we don't want to report them.

It would be very helpful to distinguish such errors automatically,
because they are not regressions and we don't need to report them to
authors. As this type of errors happens all the time during testing
on various machines, automation will save us significant efforts.

We could easily distinguish these errors if cffi-grovel signaled
specific condition instead of generic cl:simple-error.

Possible simple fix is to introduce new condition cffi-grovel:grovel-error
and shadow cl:error in the cffi-grovel package, instead writing
an own cff-givel:error function with the same prototype as cl:error,
but with the condition type it signals will be cffi-grovel:grovel-error.

If you agree to this proposal I am willing to provide a patch.

Best regards,
- Anton