[omniORB] Is this transient exception handler OK?

[Alex Tingle]

Hello,

Is it safe to raise a system exception in an omniORB transient 
exception handler? I'm maintaining a piece of code that contains this 
transient handler:

CORBA::Boolean transient_handler(
   void* cookie, CORBA::ULong retries, const CORBA::TRANSIENT& ex)
{
   if(retries > MAX_RETRIES)
   {
     throw CORBA::COMM_FAILURE(ex.minor(), ex.completed());
   }
   omni_thread::sleep(retries,0);
   return 1;
}

Clearly the author just wants to retry a couple of times and then give 
up with a COMM_FAILURE. However, the system exhibits instability when 
the transient exception is triggered. Could the throw be the cause of 
that instability?

I would probably write the handler like this:

CORBA::Boolean transient_handler(
   void* cookie, CORBA::ULong retries, const CORBA::TRANSIENT& ex)
{
   if(retries > MAX_RETRIES)
       return 0;
   omni_thread::sleep(retries,0);
   return 1;
}

...although that forces the application code to catch TRANSIENT 
explicitly, instead of just COMM_FAILURE. Is this a better alternative?

-Alex Tingle

--
Dammit Jim, I'm a programmer... not a mind reader!