I'd like to do some processing of MySQL database errors, either to try to recover from the condition or to display a more meaningful message to a user.

But the detailed information, which users want and which my attempt at automatic recovery needs, is buried in the MySQL mysql_error string, AFAIK. So it seems like I need to parse that and I can't believe I'm the first to want to do it :)

I haven't looked into this topic before so I wondered what the prior art is and whether there are any CPAN modules that might help with this? I'd be grateful for any pointers.

Thanks, Dave