Does it make sense to catch ThreadAbortException and perform no action?

Question

catch (ThreadAbortException)
{ }
catch (Exception ex)
{
    TraceManager.TraceException(ex,
                                (int)ErrorCode.GENERIC_EXCEPTION,
                                ex.StackTrace + "\n" + ex.Message + "\n" + VendorUrl);
}

does it make sense to even have the

catch (ThreadAbortException)
{ }

or will that cause the ThreadAbortException to be swallowed and lost forever?

Answer 1

ThreadAbortException cannot be caught "completely"; it will automatically be rethrown at the end of the catch block (see the linked MSDN docs page) unless Thread.ResetAbort is called first.

So, the only sensible catch block would be:

catch (ThreadAbortException)
{
    // possibly do something here
    Thread.ResetAbort();
}

But this has a really evil smell. There's probably no reason to do it, so you may want to rethink your approach.

Update: There are many questions on SO that deal with Thread.Abort:

This one has the same answer as I have given here. This one has an answer that expands on "don't ever call Thread.Abort unless Cthulhu is rising" (which I toned down considerably to an "evil smell").

There are also many others.