avoid creating duplicate stack traces

This is done by using the new AddStack function instead of WithStack.
There is also a StackError utility function exposed.

errors.go

@@ -65,12 +65,7 @@
 // Retrieving the stack trace of an error or wrapper
 //
 // New, Errorf, Wrap, and Wrapf record a stack trace at the point they are
-// invoked. This information can be retrieved with the following interface.
-//
-//     type stackTracer interface {
-//             StackTrace() errors.StackTrace
-//     }
-//
+// invoked. This information can be retrieved with the StackTracer interface that returns a StackTrace.
 // Where errors.StackTrace is defined as
 //
 //     type StackTrace []Frame
@@ -79,15 +74,12 @@
 // the fmt.Formatter interface that can be used for printing information about
 // the stack trace of this error. For example:
 //
-//     if err, ok := err.(stackTracer); ok {
-//             for _, f := range err.StackTrace() {
+//     if stacked := errors.GetStackTracer(err); stacked != nil {
+//             for _, f := range stacked.StackTrace() {
 //                     fmt.Printf("%+s:%d", f)
 //             }
 //     }
 //
-// stackTracer interface is not exported by this package, but is considered a part
-// of stable public API.
-//
 // See the documentation for Frame.Format for more details.
 package errors
 
@@ -145,12 +137,44 @@ func WithStack(err error) error {
 	if err == nil {
 		return nil
 	}
+
 	return &withStack{
 		err,
 		callers(),
 	}
 }
 
+// AddStack is similar to WithStack.
+// However, it will first check to see if a stack trace already exists in the causer chain before creating another one.
+// It does this by using the StackError function.
+func AddStack(err error) error {
+	if GetStackTracer(err) != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return WithStack(err)
+}
+
+// GetStackTracer will return the first StackTracer in the causer chain.
+// This function is used by AddStack to avoid creating redundant stack traces.
+//
+// You can also use the StackTracer interface on the returned error to get the stack trace.
+func GetStackTracer(err error) StackTracer {
+	type causer interface {
+		Cause() error
+	}
+	for err != nil {
+		if stacked, ok := err.(StackTracer); ok {
+			return stacked
+		}
+		cause, ok := err.(causer)
+		if !ok {
+			return nil
+		}
+		err = cause.Cause()
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 type withStack struct {
 	error
 	*stack

errors_test.go

@@ -96,6 +96,12 @@ func TestCause(t *testing.T) {
 	}, {
 		WithStack(io.EOF),
 		io.EOF,
+	}, {
+		AddStack(nil),
+		nil,
+	}, {
+		AddStack(io.EOF),
+		io.EOF,
 	}}
 
 	for i, tt := range tests {
@@ -154,6 +160,10 @@ func TestWithStackNil(t *testing.T) {
 	if got != nil {
 		t.Errorf("WithStack(nil): got %#v, expected nil", got)
 	}
+	got = AddStack(nil)
+	if got != nil {
+		t.Errorf("AddStack(nil): got %#v, expected nil", got)
+	}
 }
 
 func TestWithStack(t *testing.T) {
@@ -173,6 +183,50 @@ func TestWithStack(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestAddStack(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		err  error
+		want string
+	}{
+		{io.EOF, "EOF"},
+		{AddStack(io.EOF), "EOF"},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		got := AddStack(tt.err).Error()
+		if got != tt.want {
+			t.Errorf("AddStack(%v): got: %v, want %v", tt.err, got, tt.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestGetStackTracer(t *testing.T) {
+	orig := io.EOF
+	if GetStackTracer(orig) != nil {
+		t.Errorf("GetStackTracer: got: %v, want %v", GetStackTracer(orig), nil)
+	}
+	stacked := AddStack(orig)
+	if GetStackTracer(stacked).(error) != stacked {
+		t.Errorf("GetStackTracer(stacked): got: %v, want %v", GetStackTracer(stacked), stacked)
+	}
+	final := AddStack(stacked)
+	if GetStackTracer(final).(error) != stacked {
+		t.Errorf("GetStackTracer(final): got: %v, want %v", GetStackTracer(final), stacked)
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAddStackDedup(t *testing.T) {
+	stacked := WithStack(io.EOF)
+	err := AddStack(stacked)
+	if err != stacked {
+		t.Errorf("AddStack: got: %+v, want %+v", err, stacked)
+	}
+	err = WithStack(stacked)
+	if err == stacked {
+		t.Errorf("WithStack: got: %v, don't want %v", err, stacked)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestWithMessageNil(t *testing.T) {
 	got := WithMessage(nil, "no error")
 	if got != nil {
@@ -215,6 +269,8 @@ func TestErrorEquality(t *testing.T) {
 		WithMessage(io.EOF, "whoops"),
 		WithStack(io.EOF),
 		WithStack(nil),
+		AddStack(io.EOF),
+		AddStack(nil),
 	}
 
 	for i := range vals {

stack.go

@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 )
 
+// StackTracer retrieves the StackTrace
+// Generally you would want to use the GetStackTracer function to do that.
+type StackTracer interface {
+	StackTrace() StackTrace
+}
+
 // Frame represents a program counter inside a stack frame.
 type Frame uintptr