luabind abort when trying to call object method with lua errors

Question

I've used the example from http://www.rasterbar.com/products/luabind/docs.html#deriving-in-lua to define a class in c++ that I can derive from in lua:

class base
{
public:
    base(const char* s)
    { std::cout << s << "\n"; }

    virtual void f(int a)
    { std::cout << "f(" << a << ")\n"; }
};

struct base_wrapper : base, luabind::wrap_base
{
    base_wrapper(const char* s)
        : base(s)
    {}

    virtual void f(int a)
    {
        call<void>("f", a);
    }

    static void default_f(base* ptr, int a)
    {
        return ptr->base::f(a);
    }
};

...

module(L)
[
    class_<base, base_wrapper>("base")
        .def(constructor<const char*>())
        .def("f", &base::f, &base_wrapper::default_f)
];

I've then created a derived class in lua:

class 'base_derived' (base)

function base_derived:__init(str)
    base.__init(self,str)
end

function base_derived:f()
    this_function_doesnt_exist()
end

Any call to 'f' is supposed to throw a lua error, which works fine if I do it in lua:

local x = base_derived("Test")
x:f() -- Throws "attempt to call a nil value..." error

I'd like to do the equivalent of that, but in c++:

auto g = luabind::globals(l);
auto r = g["base_derived"];
if(r)
{
    luabind::object o = r("Test");
    auto gm = luabind::object_cast<base_wrapper*>(o);
    if(gm != nullptr)
    {
        try
        {
            luabind::call_member<void>(o,"f",5);
        }
        catch(luabind::error &e)
        {
            std::cout<<"[LUA] Error: "<<e.what()<<std::endl;
        }
    }
    o.push(l);
}

However the 'luabind::call_member'-call causes an abort in 'luabind/detail/call_member.hpp', line 258:

// Code snippet of luabind/detail/call_member.hpp
~proxy_member_void_caller()
{
    if (m_called) return;

    m_called = true;

    // don't count the function and self-reference
    // since those will be popped by pcall
    int top = lua_gettop(L) - 2;

    // pcall will pop the function and self reference
    // and all the parameters

    push_args_from_tuple<1>::apply(L, m_args);
    if (pcall(L, boost::tuples::length<Tuple>::value + 1, 0))
    {
        assert(lua_gettop(L) == top + 1);
#ifndef LUABIND_NO_EXCEPTIONS
////////////////////////////////////////////
        throw luabind::error(L); // LINE 258
////////////////////////////////////////////
#else
        error_callback_fun e = get_error_callback();
        if (e) e(L);

        assert(0 && "the lua function threw an error and exceptions are disabled."
            "If you want to handle this error use luabind::set_error_callback()");
        std::terminate();
#endif
    }
    // pops the return values from the function
    stack_pop pop(L, lua_gettop(L) - top);
}

The exception in that line isn't actually thrown, but it is what causes the abort.

However, the abort only happens if the lua-functions causes a lua error. If I comment the 'this_function_doesnt_exist()'-call, both the lua- and c++-versions run just fine.

Why is the 'throw luabind::error(L);' causing an abort and what can I do to safely call the function from c++ even with potential lua errors?

// Edit: This is the call stack at the time of the abort (When 'luabind::call_member(o,"f",5);' is called):

>   vcruntime140d.dll!__CxxFrameHandler(EHExceptionRecord * pExcept, unsigned __int64 RN, _CONTEXT * pContext, _xDISPATCHER_CONTEXT * pDC) Line 213 C++
    ntdll.dll!RtlpExecuteHandlerForException()  Unknown
    ntdll.dll!RtlDispatchException()    Unknown
    ntdll.dll!KiUserExceptionDispatch() Unknown
    KernelBase.dll!RaiseException() Unknown
    vcruntime140d.dll!_CxxThrowException(void * pExceptionObject, const _s__ThrowInfo * pThrowInfo) Line 136    C++
    server.dll!luabind::detail::proxy_member_void_caller<boost::tuples::tuple<int const * __ptr64,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type> >::~proxy_member_void_caller<boost::tuples::tuple<int const * __ptr64,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type,boost::tuples::null_type> >() Line 258    C++

And this is the abort message:

Answer 1

See line 254:

if (pcall(L, boost::tuples::length<Tuple>::value + 1, 0))

Here, pcall is asking lua to execute your x:f(5) equivalent call. Apparently this code returns an error because pcall() returns something different than zero. This is expected because you are indeed creating an error in lua by calling this_function_doesnt_exist() . This also explains why the abort does not happen when you comment the this_function_doesnt_exist() call.

Then, to the C++ code:

     throw luabind::error(L);

This error is thrown from a destructor: ~proxy_member_void_caller() , and it turns out that throwing an exception from a destructor is bad practice . This problem is known for luabind ( see this question ) to trigger the call of abort without even throwing.

The solution is to add noexcept(false) to the signature of ~proxy_member_void_caller() , like this:

~proxy_member_void_caller() noexcept(false)