AbortSignal throwIfAborted

signal.throwIfAborted() API throws signal’s abort reason, if signal’s AbortController has signaled to abort; otherwise, does nothing.

Quick Examples:

const signal = AbortSignal.abort(new Error("💣"))
/*AbortSignal {aborted: true, reason: Error: 💣
    at <anonymous>:1:28, onabort: null} */
signal.throwIfAborted()

/*
VM74:1 Uncaught Error: 💣
    at <anonymous>:1:28
*/

// From the issues
function animationFrame(abortSignal) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        abortSignal?.throwIfAborted();
        const frameRequest = requestAnimationFrame(time => resolve(time));
        abortSignal?.addEventListener("abort", () => {
            cancelAnimationFrame(frameRequest);
            reject(new AbortError());
        }, { once: true });
    });
}

// From the spec
async function waitForCondition(func, targetValue, { signal } = {}) {
  while (true) {
    signal?.throwIfAborted();

const result = await func();
    if (result === targetValue) {
      return;
    }
  }
}

Signal-handling methods can use throwIfAborted API to check a signal's abort status and propagate the abort reason, ex: async activities that might affect a signal's state.

Browser implementation:

Below is the crux from Firefox's implementation.

// https://dom.spec.whatwg.org/#dom-abortsignal-throwifaborted
void AbortSignal::ThrowIfAborted(JSContext* aCx, ErrorResult& aRv) {
  aRv.MightThrowJSException();
  if (Aborted()) {
    JS::Rooted<JS::Value> reason(aCx);
    GetReason(aCx, &reason);
    aRv.ThrowJSException(aCx, reason);
  }
}

Safari is pretty similar:

void AbortSignal::throwIfAborted(JSC::JSGlobalObject& lexicalGlobalObject)
{
    if (!aborted())
        return;

auto& vm = lexicalGlobalObject.vm();
    auto scope = DECLARE_THROW_SCOPE(vm);
    throwException(&lexicalGlobalObject, scope, m_reason);
}

Chrome

void AbortSignal::throwIfAborted(ScriptState* script_state,
                                 ExceptionState& exception_state) const {
  if (!aborted())
    return;
  exception_state.RethrowV8Exception(reason(script_state).V8Value());
}

throwIfAborted() should:

• throw abort.reason if signal aborted
• throw primitive abort.reason if signal aborted
• should not throw if signal not aborted

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Published 07 Apr 2022