Issues with serializing exceptions with System.Text.Json

[jakejscott]

Expected Behaviour

Some Exceptions have types on them that are not serializable by System.Text.Json for example 'System.Type' and 'System.IntPtr'

See related issue here:
dotnet/runtime#43026

Not sure of the best way to handle this. I think libraries like Serilog implement their own custom JSON serialization.

Current Behaviour

When I log certain exceptions System.NotSupportedException is thrown

Code snippet

[Fact]
public void ReproduceIssue()
{
    var myEx = new MyException
    {
        Handle = (IntPtr)1
    };

    var value = JsonSerializer.Serialize(myEx);

    // System.NotSupportedException: Serialization and deserialization of 'System.IntPtr' instances are not supported. Path: $.Handle.
}

public class MyException : Exception
{
    public IntPtr Handle { get; set; }
}

Possible Solution

Possibly implement a JsonConverter which can serialize exceptions (Message, StackTrace)

Steps to Reproduce

[Fact]
public void ReproduceIssue()
{
    var myEx = new MyException
    {
        Handle = (IntPtr)1
    };

    var value = JsonSerializer.Serialize(myEx);

    // System.NotSupportedException: Serialization and deserialization of 'System.IntPtr' instances are not supported. Path: $.Handle.
}

public class MyException : Exception
{
    public IntPtr Handle { get; set; }
}

AWS Lambda Powertools for .NET version

latest

AWS Lambda function runtime

dotnet6

Debugging logs

No response

[amirkaws]

Thank you @jakejscott for opening the issue. As you mentioned, System.Text.Json does not support Type & IntPtr serialization but the Logger.LogError method does not serialize the exception. Instead it adds the error message to the log object. Technically you should not get error in that case. I’ll appreciate if you please provide a bit more context on how you are using the Logger to raise the exception.

[Fact]
public void ReproduceIssue()
{
    var myEx = new MyException
    {
        Handle = (IntPtr)1
    };

    Logger.LogError(myEx);
}

public class MyException : Exception
{
    public IntPtr Handle { get; set; }
}

it’s also understandable that there might be a need to log more details on the exception than just the message. One of the way would be implementing a custom JSON serialization to handle exceptions per suggested. I’ll discuss internally to find out the best way forward and update the ticket accordingly.

[amirkaws]

Released v0.0.2-preview.