How do I prevent and/or handle a StackOverflowException?

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From Microsoft:

Starting with the .NET Framework
version 2.0, a StackOverflowException
object cannot be caught by a try-catch
block and the corresponding process is
terminated by default. Consequently,
users are advised to write their code
to detect and prevent a stack
overflow. For example, if your
application depends on recursion, use
a counter or a state condition to
terminate the recursive loop.

I’m assuming the exception is happening within an internal .NET method, and not in your code.

You can do a couple things.

  • Write code that checks the xsl for infinite recursion and notifies the user prior to applying a transform (Ugh).
  • Load the XslTransform code into a separate process (Hacky, but less work).

You can use the Process class to load the assembly that will apply the transform into a separate process, and alert the user of the failure if it dies, without killing your main app.

EDIT: I just tested, here is how to do it:

MainProcess:

// This is just an example, obviously you'll want to pass args to this.
Process p1 = new Process();
p1.StartInfo.FileName = "ApplyTransform.exe";
p1.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p1.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;

p1.Start();
p1.WaitForExit();

if (p1.ExitCode == 1)    
   Console.WriteLine("StackOverflow was thrown");

ApplyTransform Process:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException += new UnhandledExceptionEventHandler(CurrentDomain_UnhandledException);
        throw new StackOverflowException();
    }

    // We trap this, we can't save the process, 
    // but we can prevent the "ILLEGAL OPERATION" window 
    static void CurrentDomain_UnhandledException(object sender, UnhandledExceptionEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.IsTerminating)
        {
            Environment.Exit(1);
        }
    }
}

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