Should Exceptions Be Ignored in a 'Fire and Forget' Approach?

Fire and Forget: Considerations for Exception Handling

The question raised here revolves around the appropriate handling of exceptions when implementing a "fire and forget" approach. The initial proposal of using an extension method that simply swallows exceptions raises concerns as it may obscure potential errors.

However, if the intention is truly to ignore any exceptions that occur within the task, then an asynchronous extension method may not be the optimal solution. Awaiting the task would defeat the "fire and forget" principle by introducing a dependency on its completion.

In this scenario, a synchronous extension method, as initially proposed, would be more appropriate. However, to ensure that expected but ignorable exceptions are handled gracefully, a more elaborate version of the method would be necessary.

For instance, the following method takes a parameter that defines a list of acceptable and ignorable exception types:

public static void Forget(this Task task, params Type[] acceptableExceptions)
{
  try
  {
    task.Wait();
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {
    // TODO: consider whether derived types are also acceptable.
    if (!acceptableExceptions.Contains(ex.GetType()))
      throw;
  }
}

This approach allows for selective handling of exceptions, ensuring that only unexpected errors are propagated.

It is important to note that using this method does not truly make the task "fire and forget" in the sense of being completely independent of its completion. However, it provides a means of ignoring specific exceptions that are part of the expected behavior of the task.

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