Why does SPUtility.Redirect throw a thread abort exception

Question

Wherever I use SPUtility.Redirect in my code it works ok for the user but i see a thread abort exception in the ULS logs, the message starts with:

"ExceptionType: 'ThreadAbortException' ExceptionMessage: 'Thread was being aborted.')"

Then a few lines later in ULS i see a host of request not disposed entries starting wtih:

"An SPRequest object was not disposed before the end of this thread"

I have seen other poeple reporting the ThreadAbortException on the internet, but no one has been able to explain why this happens, or how to use SPUtility.Redirect in such a way that the exception isn't thrown. Whilst Response.Redirect(url,false) doesn't raise an exception, i still see the entries reporting that the SPRequest wasn't disposed properly. Hope you can help

Answer 1

There's an answer on technet which explains it pretty well:

Hello!

When request is being redirected, the HttpResponse.End() method is called. The given method, in turn, calls

Thread.CurrentThread.Abort(new HttpApplication.CancelModuleException(false));

The Thread.Abort method raises ThreadAbortException in the thread where it is invoked to begin the process of terminating the thread. I mentioned about that in my blog post. So it's normal behavior.

Try to use SPRedirectFlags.DoNotEndResponse when calling SPUtility.Redirect().