HAL-13 panic is used for error handling

[juniuszhou]

Description:
Several instances of the panic function were identified in the codebase. They appear to be used to handle errors. This can cause potential issues, as invoking a panic can cause the program to halt execution and crash in some cases. This in turn can negatively impact the availability of the software for users.

Code Location:

1 ./x/ ethbridge / genesis.go :20: panic ( err ) 
2 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :182: panic ("Failed to apply validator set updates ")
3 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :233: panic ( err ) 
4 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :289: panic ( err ) 
5 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :293: panic (" Bech encoding doesn 't match reference ") 
6 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :297: panic ( err ) 
7 ./x/ ethbridge / test / test_helpers.go :300: panic (" Bech decode and hex decode don 't match ") 
8 ./x/ ethbridge / keeper / keeper.go :113: panic ( err ) 
9 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :81: panic ( err )
10 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :183: panic ( err )
11 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :344: panic ( err )
12 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :353: panic ( err )
13 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :392: panic ( err )
14 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :402: panic ( err )
15 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :441: panic ( err )
16 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :451: panic ( err )
17 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :491: panic ( err )
18 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :501: panic ( err )
19 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :558: panic ( err )
20 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :568: panic ( err )
21 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :597: panic ( err )
22 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :607: panic ( err )
23 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :636: panic ( err )
24 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :646: panic ( err )
25 ./x/ ethbridge / types / msgs.go :680: panic ( err )
26 ./x/ ethbridge / types / claim.go :89: panic (" Error : Network Descriptor must be between 0 -9999 ")
27 ./x/ tokenregistry / module.go :72: panic ( err )
28 ./x/ tokenregistry / module.go :110: panic ( err )
29 ./x/ tokenregistry / keeper / migrations.go :22:panic ( err )
30 ./x/ tokenregistry / keeper / keeper.go :167: panic (" Invalid Denom for Get Double Peg ")
31 ./x/ tokenregistry / keeper / keeper.go :181: panic (" ë Invalid Denom for Set Double Peg ")
32 ./x/ tokenregistry / keeper / metadata.go :37: panic (" ë Unhandled Registry Error ")
33 ./x/ tokenregistry / keeper / metadata.go :70: panic ("Unexpected error from GetRegistryEntry ")
34 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / genesis.go :21: // panic ( err )
35 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / genesis.go :34: panic ( fmt . ë Sprintf (" Failed to get genesis state from app state : %s", err .Error () ) )
36 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / genesis.go :50: panic ( fmt . ë Sprintf (" Failed to get genesis state from app state : %s", err .Error () ) )
37 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :58: panic ( err )
38 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :111: panic ( err )
39 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :162: panic ( err )
40 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :202: panic ( err )
41 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :246: panic ( err )
42 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :295: panic ( err )
43 ./x/ tokenregistry / types / msgs.go :305: panic ( err )

Recommendation

Instead of using panics, custom errors should be defined and handled according to the Cosmos best practices.

[juniuszhou]

I don't understand why not panic, if there is a serous issue, we really need to stop the node, even the chain. then we should panic, in some context, return an error and continue doesn't make sense and chain will be messy situation.

[juniuszhou]

I prefer we still use panic and won't fix.

[pandaring2you]

@smartyalgo asked for clarification from halborn on the appropriate time to panic since panics are used in cosmos sdk as well. michael to follow up. remaining item: review areas to determine if we actually need a panic.