RabbitMQ throws AlreadyClosedException rather than IOException when the broker connection is lost - rabbitmq

Question

I'm using rabbitmq java client 2.4.1 the newest version.
After a TCP connection lost, and still call a method on a channel over
this connection, a AlreadyClosedException will be thrown.
Is it a bug? I expected an IOException, but AlreadyClosedException I
got, and AlreadyClosedException is a RuntimeException.
If not, why all other errors cause an IOException.
#Test
public void testConnectionLost() throws IOException{
ConnectionFactory factory = new ConnectionFactory();
factory.setRequestedHeartbeat(60);
factory.setHost("<your rabbitmq host>");
Connection connection = factory.newConnection();
Channel channel = connection.createChannel();
connection.close();
try {
channel.queueDeclare("queueName", false, false, false, null);
Assert.fail("Exception expected.");
}catch (IOException e) {
//it will NOT reach here.
//Inner exception should be AlreadyClosedException
System.out.println(e);
}catch (AlreadyClosedException e) {
// it will reach here.
System.out.println(e);
//this is strange!
//I expected IOException , but AlreadyClosedException I got.
//And AlreadyClosedException is a RuntimeException.
}
Thank you.

Answer 1

If your client loses the TCP connection to your broker, the connection is considered "closed". Therefore it is appropriate (and not a bug) for the client library to throw an AlreadyClosedException.
In other words, a connection is considered "closed" no matter how it got closed (either through a graceful manner or through an unexpected failure).