freebsd-dev/lib/libc/string/strerror.3
Wes Peters 9c324dc0c0 Add strerror_r function per Posix prototype.
Reviewed by:	Mike Barcroft <mike@FreeBSD.org>
MFC after:	2 weeks
2001-11-27 07:39:46 +00:00

160 lines
4.4 KiB
Groff

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.\" @(#)strerror.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd Nov 26, 2001
.Dt STRERROR 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm perror ,
.Nm strerror ,
.Nm strerror_r ,
.Nm sys_errlist ,
.Nm sys_nerr
.Nd system error messages
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In stdio.h
.Ft void
.Fn perror "const char *string"
.Vt extern const char * const sys_errlist[] ;
.Vt extern const int sys_nerr ;
.In string.h
.Ft char *
.Fn strerror "int errnum"
.Ft int
.Fn strerror_r "int errnum" "char * strerrbuf" "size_t buflen"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn strerror ,
.Fn strerror_r
and
.Fn perror
functions look up the error message string corresponding to an
error number.
.Pp
The
.Fn strerror
function accepts an error number argument
.Fa errnum
and returns a pointer to the corresponding
message string.
.Pp
The
.Fn strerror_r
function renders the same result into
.Fa strerrbuf
for a maximum of
.Fa buflen
characters and returns 0 upon success. If insufficient
storage is provided in
.Fa strerrbuf
(as specified in
.Fa buflen )
to contain the error string,
.Er ERANGE
is returned and the string in
.Fa strerrbuf
may not be null-terminated.
.Pp
The
.Fn perror
function finds the error message corresponding to the current
value of the global variable
.Va errno
.Pq Xr intro 2
and writes it, followed by a newline, to the
standard error file descriptor.
If the argument
.Fa string
is
.Pf non- Dv NULL
and does not point to the null character,
this string is prepended to the message
string and separated from it by
a colon and space
.Pq Ql \&:\ \& ;
otherwise, only the error message string is printed.
.Pp
If
.Fa errnum
is not a recognized error number,
the error message string will contain
.Dq Li "Unknown error:\ "
followed by the error number in decimal.
.Pp
The message strings can be accessed directly using the external
array
.Va sys_errlist .
The external value
.Va sys_nerr
contains a count of the messages in
.Va sys_errlist .
The use of these variables is deprecated;
.Fn strerror
or
.Fn strerror_r
should be used instead.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr intro 2 ,
.Xr psignal 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn strerror
and
.Fn perror
functions first appeared in
.Bx 4.4 .
The
.Fn strerror_r
function was implemented in
.Fx 4.4
by
.An Wes Peters
.Aq wes@freebsd.org .
.Sh BUGS
For unknown error numbers, the
.Fn strerror
function will return its result in a static buffer which
may be overwritten by subsequent calls.
.Pp
Programs that use the deprecated
.Va sys_errlist
variable often fail to compile because they declare it
inconsistently.