TidyException type for the tidy extension

The tidy extension cleans up and repairs HTML. This short RFC from devnexen gives it a dedicated exception class, TidyException. The author wrote it while working on making tidy throw exceptions instead of raising warnings.

What it adds#

The class itself is empty:

class TidyException extends Exception
{
}

The RFC lists three places where it would be thrown: tidy_parse_file(), tidy::parseFile() and tidy::__construct(). You could then catch it like this:

try {
    $tidy->parseFile("does_not_exist.html");
} catch (TidyException $e) {
    // Cannot load "does_not_exist.html" into memory
    echo $e->getMessage(), PHP_EOL;
}

The RFC also floats an alternative, where the exception would live in a new Tidy namespace with room for more exception classes later.

What it means for existing code#

Only code that uses tidy is affected. The RFC says the extension has never thrown an exception before, so this is the chance to introduce one. It doesn't say more about what changes for code that relies on the current warnings.

Where it stands#

It's under discussion. The RFC is dated October 26, 2025, and targets the next PHP 8.x release. There's no vote yet, and the page doesn't cover much beyond the class itself.

We list it as inactive because the page hasn't changed since October 2025 and no vote was ever held.