Panic

Code in Cairo1.0 may panic - which means it may fail with an unrecoverable error - meaning it is impossible to catch and handle. When the program panics, using the linear type system all living variables on the stack would be Dropped or otherwise destructed, which makes sure the run remains provable and valid.

panic function

The basic function that all panic stems from is the panic function. It is defined as:

extern fn panic(data: Array<felt252>) -> never;

The panic function takes a single argument, which is a felt252 array. This array is the data that is passed as the reason the run panicked. The panic function never returns, and is marked as such with the never type.

nopanic notation

Functions may be marked with the nopanic notation. This means that the function will never panic. This can be useful for writing code that may never fail. Only nopanic functions may be called from a nopanic function.

nopanic and traits

If a trait function is marked with nopanic, all implementations of that trait must also be marked with nopanic, as the trait function may be called from a nopanic function. An example for such a function is Destruct trait destruct function, which is nopanic as it is called during panic handling, see linear type system for more info.

If a trait function is not marked with nopanic, all implementations of that trait may be marked with nopanic or not. An example for such a function is Add trait add function, which is nopanic for felt252 addition, but isn’t so for integer addition.

panic_with macro

A function returning an Option or Result may be marked with the panic_with macro. This macro takes two arguments, which is the data that is passed as the panic reason as well as the name for a wrapping function. If the function returns None or Err, panic function will be called with the given data.

#[panic_with('got none value', unwrap)]
fn identity(value: Option<u128>) -> Option<u128> { a }

Some fn unwrap(value: Option<u128>) → u128 that internally may panic may be created.