[ruby-core:122835] [Ruby Bug#21360] Inconsistent Support for `Exception#cause` in `Fiber#raise` and `Thread#raise`

Issue #21360 has been updated by ioquatix (Samuel Williams).

Status changed from Open to Assigned
Assignee set to ioquatix (Samuel Williams)

@matz accepted this change: https://github.com/ruby/dev-meeting-log/blob/master/2025/DevMeeting-2025-07-10.md#bug-21360-inconsistent-support-for-exceptioncause-in-fiberraise-and-threadraise-ioquatix

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Bug #21360: Inconsistent Support for `Exception#cause` in `Fiber#raise` and `Thread#raise`
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/21360#change-114124

* Author: ioquatix (Samuel Williams)
* Status: Assigned
* Assignee: ioquatix (Samuel Williams)
* Backport: 3.2: UNKNOWN, 3.3: UNKNOWN, 3.4: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
The `raise` method supports setting the cause of an exception using the `cause:` keyword, but this behavior does not work as expected when calling `Fiber#raise` or `Thread#raise`, resulting in a `TypeError`. This breaks consistency with `Kernel#raise` and makes it difficult to attach causal chains to exceptions raised from other execution contexts.

## The Problem

The following code behaves correctly when using `Kernel#raise`, correctly setting the `cause`:

```ruby
cause = RuntimeError.new("cause")

begin
  raise RuntimeError, "boom", cause: cause
rescue => error
  pp error: error, cause: error.cause
end
```

Produces:

```ruby
{error: #<RuntimeError: boom>, cause: #<RuntimeError: cause>}
```

However, using `Fiber.current.raise` or `Thread.current.raise` with the same arguments produces a `TypeError`:

```ruby
begin
  Fiber.current.raise RuntimeError, "boom", cause: cause
rescue => error
  pp error: error, cause: error.cause
end
```

Results in:

```ruby
{error: #<TypeError: backtrace must be an Array of String or an Array of Thread::Backtrace::Location>, cause: nil}
```

This occurs because the third argument is incorrectly interpreted as a backtrace, not as keyword arguments. A similar issue occurs with `Thread#raise`.

## Proposed Solution

Update `Fiber#raise` and `Thread#raise` to accept and correctly interpret keyword arguments, including `cause:`, in the same manner as `Kernel#raise`. This would restore consistency across all `raise` implementations and allow causal exception chaining regardless of context. In other words, `Fiber#raise` and `Thread#raise` would be defined as the same interface as `Kernel#raise`.



-- 
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