A catch that only rethrows; logging an error and rethrowing it

Code longer than it needs to be: one of the ways AI coding agents bloat software, from lessloc's pattern catalog. lessloc catches it as simpler.

What makes a catch that only rethrows a bad practice?

The standards that call it a bad practice: ESLint no-useless-catch; Sonar S2737; ruff TRY203; McCune, "Exception-Handling Antipatterns": Log and Throw.

What does lessloc do about a catch that only rethrows?

lessloc catches it as simpler.

• simpler (tier 2): Brute-force code with a shorter idiom: == True, an if/else that returns the condition, an index loop that only reads xs[i], .filter(...).length > 0, a catch that only rethrows, a flag loop that is any(), a hand-built counter, an __init__ that @dataclass writes, a React Effect that only sets state. ruff and clippy add more.

Examples

Caught as simpler:

export async function load(f) {
  try {
    return await f();
  } catch (e) {
    throw e;
  }
}

Written well:

export async function load(f) {
  return f();
}

Caught as simpler:

export async function load(f) {
  try {
    return await f();
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("load failed", err);
    throw err;
  }
}

Written well:

export async function load(f) {
  try {
    return await f();
  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error("load failed", { cause: err });
  }
}

Related patterns

The other patterns in Code longer than it needs to be:

• Brute-force idioms: lessloc catches it as simpler, built in for Python, JS/TS, Go, Rust, Java and C#. ruff (in every hook) and clippy (in ci) go deeper.
• Hand-built counters and flag loops: lessloc catches it as simpler.
• A promise wrapped in new Promise: lessloc catches it as simpler.
• Annotating types the compiler infers: lessloc catches it as simpler.
• A React Effect that only sets state from other values: lessloc catches it as simpler.
• Functions with many parameters (8 or more): lessloc catches it as long-params.
• Deep nesting: lessloc catches it as deep-nesting.
• Long functions: lessloc catches it as long-function.
• If-chains on literal values: lessloc catches it as if-chain.
• A file that keeps growing: lessloc catches it as swollen-file.
• Reformatting lines the task did not change: lessloc gives every session a rule against it and catches it as churn.
• Net growth past a budget: lessloc catches it as net-growth.
• Golfed code: lessloc catches it as clever and dense-lines.