Title: graceful_fail
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: May 20, 2026
---
# graceful_fail( $message )
## In this article
* [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#description)
- [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#see-also)
* [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#source)
* [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#related)
* [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#changelog)
[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)
This function has been deprecated since 3.0.0. Use [wp_die()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_die/)
instead.
Deprecated functionality to gracefully fail.
## [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#description)
### [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#see-also)
* [wp_die()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_die/)
## [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#source)
```php
function graceful_fail( $message ) {
_deprecated_function( __FUNCTION__, '3.0.0', 'wp_die()' );
$message = apply_filters( 'graceful_fail', $message );
$message_template = apply_filters( 'graceful_fail_template',
'
Error!
%s
' );
die( sprintf( $message_template, $message ) );
}
```
[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php#L89)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/ms-deprecated.php#L89-L117)
## [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#related)
| Uses | Description |
| [_deprecated_function()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_deprecated_function/)`wp-includes/functions.php` |
Marks a function as deprecated and inform when it has been used.
|
| [apply_filters()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/apply_filters/)`wp-includes/plugin.php` |
Calls the callback functions that have been added to a filter hook.
|
## [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/graceful_fail/?output_format=md#changelog)
| Version | Description |
| [3.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.0/) | Deprecated. Use [wp_die()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_die/) |
| [MU (3.0.0)](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/mu.3.0.0/) | Introduced. |
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