Should local exceptions be wrapped in RemoteException with RMI?

Question

I am trying to understand the reason why all remote methods have the possibility of throwing a RemoteException.
I am currently doing something like this:public interface RemoteReader extends Remote {
    public String readData(File f) throws IOException, RemoteException;
}Should I be doing something like:public interface RemoteReader extends Remote {
    public String readData(File f) throws RemoteException; //no IOException
public class RemoteReaderImpl implements RemoteReader {
    public String readData(File f) throws RemoteException {
        try {
            //some code that may throw an IOException
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RemoteException(e.getMessage(), e);
}Which is preferred?

Answer 1

No. RemoteException should just mean that something went wrong with the transport. Something always can, so RMI obliges you to declare RemoteException as thrown by every remote method. You should use your own exception classes for your own exceptions, then you'll have an easy way of distinguishing application problems from platform problems.