with_retries{} helper to easily catch and retry exceptions in Ruby

with_retries.rb

module Retriable
  # This will catch any exception and retry twice (three tries total):
  #   with_retries { ... }
  #
  # This will catch any exception and retry four times (five tries total):
  #   with_retries(:limit => 5) { ... }
  #
  # This will catch a specific exception and retry once (two tries total):
  #   with_retries(Some::Error, :limit => 2) { ... }
  #
  # You can also sleep inbetween tries. This is helpful if you're hoping
  # that some external service recovers from its issues.
  #   with_retries(Service::Error, :sleep => 1) { ... }
  #
  def with_retries(*args, &block)
    options = args.extract_options!
    exceptions = args
  
    options[:limit] ||= 3
    options[:sleep] ||= 0
    exceptions = [Exception] if exceptions.empty?

    retried = 0
    begin
      yield
    rescue *exceptions => e
      if retried + 1 < options[:limit]
        retried += 1
        sleep options[:sleep]
        retry
      else
        raise e
      end
    end
  end
end

class Object
  include Retriable
  extend  Retriable
end

You really shouldn't rescue from Exception. Use StandardError instead.

FYI: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10048173