Ruby does not 'ensure' when I 'retry' in 'rescue'

Question

Consider this begin-rescue-ensure block:

attempts=0
begin
  make_service_call()
rescue Exception
  retry unless attempts>2
  exit -1
ensure
  attemps += 1         


        

Answer 1

ensure code is executed once, just before the code block exits and it will be called at that time.

But because of the unless attempts>2 condition, and the fact that ensure will only be called "just before the code exits" (e.g. due to exit -1) the attempts += 1 will not be executed, and so there is an infinite loop.

ensure is like __finally in C++ : you could catch the exception and then use a goto : but finally will not be called until the function is actually about to exit.