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Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Error-Codes.html#Error-Codes">Error Codes</a>,
Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Error-Reporting.html#Error-Reporting">Error Reporting</a>
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<h3 class="section">2.3 Error Messages</h3>

<p>The library has functions and variables designed to make it easy for
your program to report informative error messages in the customary
format about the failure of a library call.  The functions
<code>strerror</code> and <code>perror</code> give you the standard error message
for a given error code; the variable
<code>program_invocation_short_name</code><!-- /@w --> gives you convenient access to the
name of the program that encountered the error.

<!-- string.h -->
<!-- ISO -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: char * <b>strerror</b> (<var>int errnum</var>)<var><a name="index-strerror-210"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>strerror</code> function maps the error code (see <a href="Checking-for-Errors.html#Checking-for-Errors">Checking for Errors</a>) specified by the <var>errnum</var> argument to a descriptive error
message string.  The return value is a pointer to this string.

        <p>The value <var>errnum</var> normally comes from the variable <code>errno</code>.

        <p>You should not modify the string returned by <code>strerror</code>.  Also, if
you make subsequent calls to <code>strerror</code>, the string might be
overwritten.  (But it's guaranteed that no library function ever calls
<code>strerror</code> behind your back.)

        <p>The function <code>strerror</code> is declared in <samp><span class="file">string.h</span></samp>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- string.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: char * <b>strerror_r</b> (<var>int errnum, char *buf, size_t n</var>)<var><a name="index-strerror_005fr-211"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>strerror_r</code> function works like <code>strerror</code> but instead of
returning the error message in a statically allocated buffer shared by
all threads in the process, it returns a private copy for the
thread. This might be either some permanent global data or a message
string in the user supplied buffer starting at <var>buf</var> with the
length of <var>n</var> bytes.

        <p>At most <var>n</var> characters are written (including the NUL byte) so it is
up to the user to select the buffer large enough.

        <p>This function should always be used in multi-threaded programs since
there is no way to guarantee the string returned by <code>strerror</code>
really belongs to the last call of the current thread.

        <p>This function <code>strerror_r</code> is a GNU extension and it is declared in
<samp><span class="file">string.h</span></samp>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- stdio.h -->
<!-- ISO -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>perror</b> (<var>const char *message</var>)<var><a name="index-perror-212"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>This function prints an error message to the stream <code>stderr</code>;
see <a href="Standard-Streams.html#Standard-Streams">Standard Streams</a>.  The orientation of <code>stderr</code> is not
changed.

        <p>If you call <code>perror</code> with a <var>message</var> that is either a null
pointer or an empty string, <code>perror</code> just prints the error message
corresponding to <code>errno</code>, adding a trailing newline.

        <p>If you supply a non-null <var>message</var> argument, then <code>perror</code>
prefixes its output with this string.  It adds a colon and a space
character to separate the <var>message</var> from the error string corresponding
to <code>errno</code>.

        <p>The function <code>perror</code> is declared in <samp><span class="file">stdio.h</span></samp>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

   <p><code>strerror</code> and <code>perror</code> produce the exact same message for any
given error code; the precise text varies from system to system.  On the
GNU system, the messages are fairly short; there are no multi-line
messages or embedded newlines.  Each error message begins with a capital
letter and does not include any terminating punctuation.

   <p><strong>Compatibility Note:</strong> The <code>strerror</code> function was introduced
in ISO&nbsp;C89<!-- /@w -->.  Many older C systems do not support this function yet.

   <p><a name="index-program-name-213"></a><a name="index-name-of-running-program-214"></a>Many programs that don't read input from the terminal are designed to
exit if any system call fails.  By convention, the error message from
such a program should start with the program's name, sans directories. 
You can find that name in the variable
<code>program_invocation_short_name</code>; the full file name is stored the
variable <code>program_invocation_name</code>.

<!-- errno.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Variable: char * <b>program_invocation_name</b><var><a name="index-program_005finvocation_005fname-215"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>This variable's value is the name that was used to invoke the program
running in the current process.  It is the same as <code>argv[0]</code>.  Note
that this is not necessarily a useful file name; often it contains no
directory names.  See <a href="Program-Arguments.html#Program-Arguments">Program Arguments</a>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- errno.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Variable: char * <b>program_invocation_short_name</b><var><a name="index-program_005finvocation_005fshort_005fname-216"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>This variable's value is the name that was used to invoke the program
running in the current process, with directory names removed.  (That is
to say, it is the same as <code>program_invocation_name</code> minus
everything up to the last slash, if any.) 
</p></blockquote></div>

   <p>The library initialization code sets up both of these variables before
calling <code>main</code>.

   <p><strong>Portability Note:</strong> These two variables are GNU extensions.  If
you want your program to work with non-GNU libraries, you must save the
value of <code>argv[0]</code> in <code>main</code>, and then strip off the directory
names yourself.  We added these extensions to make it possible to write
self-contained error-reporting subroutines that require no explicit
cooperation from <code>main</code>.

   <p>Here is an example showing how to handle failure to open a file
correctly.  The function <code>open_sesame</code> tries to open the named file
for reading and returns a stream if successful.  The <code>fopen</code>
library function returns a null pointer if it couldn't open the file for
some reason.  In that situation, <code>open_sesame</code> constructs an
appropriate error message using the <code>strerror</code> function, and
terminates the program.  If we were going to make some other library
calls before passing the error code to <code>strerror</code>, we'd have to
save it in a local variable instead, because those other library
functions might overwrite <code>errno</code> in the meantime.

<pre class="smallexample">     #include &lt;errno.h&gt;
     #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
     #include &lt;stdlib.h&gt;
     #include &lt;string.h&gt;
     
     FILE *
     open_sesame (char *name)
     {
       FILE *stream;
     
       errno = 0;
       stream = fopen (name, "r");
       if (stream == NULL)
         {
           fprintf (stderr, "%s: Couldn't open file %s; %s\n",
                    program_invocation_short_name, name, strerror (errno));
           exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
         }
       else
         return stream;
     }
</pre>
   <p>Using <code>perror</code> has the advantage that the function is portable and
available on all systems implementing ISO&nbsp;C<!-- /@w -->.  But often the text
<code>perror</code> generates is not what is wanted and there is no way to
extend or change what <code>perror</code> does.  The GNU coding standard, for
instance, requires error messages to be preceded by the program name and
programs which read some input files should should provide information
about the input file name and the line number in case an error is
encountered while reading the file.  For these occasions there are two
functions available which are widely used throughout the GNU project. 
These functions are declared in <samp><span class="file">error.h</span></samp>.

<!-- error.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>error</b> (<var>int status, int errnum, const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-error-217"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>error</code> function can be used to report general problems during
program execution.  The <var>format</var> argument is a format string just
like those given to the <code>printf</code> family of functions.  The
arguments required for the format can follow the <var>format</var> parameter. 
Just like <code>perror</code>, <code>error</code> also can report an error code in
textual form.  But unlike <code>perror</code> the error value is explicitly
passed to the function in the <var>errnum</var> parameter.  This eliminates
the problem mentioned above that the error reporting function must be
called immediately after the function causing the error since otherwise
<code>errno</code> might have a different value.

        <p>The <code>error</code> prints first the program name.  If the application
defined a global variable <code>error_print_progname</code> and points it to a
function this function will be called to print the program name. 
Otherwise the string from the global variable <code>program_name</code> is
used.  The program name is followed by a colon and a space which in turn
is followed by the output produced by the format string.  If the
<var>errnum</var> parameter is non-zero the format string output is followed
by a colon and a space, followed by the error message for the error code
<var>errnum</var>.  In any case is the output terminated with a newline.

        <p>The output is directed to the <code>stderr</code> stream.  If the
<code>stderr</code> wasn't oriented before the call it will be narrow-oriented
afterwards.

        <p>The function will return unless the <var>status</var> parameter has a
non-zero value.  In this case the function will call <code>exit</code> with
the <var>status</var> value for its parameter and therefore never return.  If
<code>error</code> returns the global variable <code>error_message_count</code> is
incremented by one to keep track of the number of errors reported. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- error.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>error_at_line</b> (<var>int status, int errnum, const char *fname, unsigned int lineno, const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-error_005fat_005fline-218"></a></var><br>
<blockquote>
<p>The <code>error_at_line</code> function is very similar to the <code>error</code>
function.  The only difference are the additional parameters <var>fname</var>
and <var>lineno</var>.  The handling of the other parameters is identical to
that of <code>error</code> except that between the program name and the string
generated by the format string additional text is inserted.

        <p>Directly following the program name a colon, followed by the file name
pointer to by <var>fname</var>, another colon, and a value of <var>lineno</var> is
printed.

        <p>This additional output of course is meant to be used to locate an error
in an input file (like a programming language source code file etc).

        <p>If the global variable <code>error_one_per_line</code> is set to a non-zero
value <code>error_at_line</code> will avoid printing consecutive messages for
the same file and line.  Repetition which are not directly following
each other are not caught.

        <p>Just like <code>error</code> this function only returned if <var>status</var> is
zero.  Otherwise <code>exit</code> is called with the non-zero value.  If
<code>error</code> returns the global variable <code>error_message_count</code> is
incremented by one to keep track of the number of errors reported. 
</p></blockquote></div>

   <p>As mentioned above the <code>error</code> and <code>error_at_line</code> functions
can be customized by defining a variable named
<code>error_print_progname</code>.

<!-- error.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Variable: void (* <b>error_print_progname</b>) (<var>void</var>)<var><a name="index-error_005fprint_005fprogname-219"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>If the <code>error_print_progname</code> variable is defined to a non-zero
value the function pointed to is called by <code>error</code> or
<code>error_at_line</code>.  It is expected to print the program name or do
something similarly useful.

        <p>The function is expected to be print to the <code>stderr</code> stream and
must be able to handle whatever orientation the stream has.

        <p>The variable is global and shared by all threads. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- error.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Variable: unsigned int <b>error_message_count</b><var><a name="index-error_005fmessage_005fcount-220"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>error_message_count</code> variable is incremented whenever one of
the functions <code>error</code> or <code>error_at_line</code> returns.  The
variable is global and shared by all threads. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- error.h -->
<!-- GNU -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Variable: int <b>error_one_per_line</b><var><a name="index-error_005fone_005fper_005fline-221"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>error_one_per_line</code> variable influences only
<code>error_at_line</code>.  Normally the <code>error_at_line</code> function
creates output for every invocation.  If <code>error_one_per_line</code> is
set to a non-zero value <code>error_at_line</code> keeps track of the last
file name and line number for which an error was reported and avoid
directly following messages for the same file and line.  This variable
is global and shared by all threads. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<p class="noindent">A program which read some input file and reports errors in it could look
like this:

<pre class="smallexample">     {
       char *line = NULL;
       size_t len = 0;
       unsigned int lineno = 0;
     
       error_message_count = 0;
       while (! feof_unlocked (fp))
         {
           ssize_t n = getline (&amp;line, &amp;len, fp);
           if (n &lt;= 0)
             /* <span class="roman">End of file or error.</span>  */
             break;
           ++lineno;
     
           /* <span class="roman">Process the line.</span>  */
           ...
     
           if (<span class="roman">Detect error in line</span>)
             error_at_line (0, errval, filename, lineno,
                            "some error text %s", some_variable);
         }
     
       if (error_message_count != 0)
         error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0, "%u errors found", error_message_count);
     }
</pre>
   <p><code>error</code> and <code>error_at_line</code> are clearly the functions of
choice and enable the programmer to write applications which follow the
GNU coding standard.  The GNU libc additionally contains functions which
are used in BSD for the same purpose.  These functions are declared in
<samp><span class="file">err.h</span></samp>.  It is generally advised to not use these functions.  They
are included only for compatibility.

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>warn</b> (<var>const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-warn-222"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>warn</code> function is roughly equivalent to a call like
     <pre class="smallexample">            error (0, errno, format, <span class="roman">the parameters</span>)
     </pre>
        <p class="noindent">except that the global variables <code>error</code> respects and modifies
are not used. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>vwarn</b> (<var>const char *format, va_list</var>)<var><a name="index-vwarn-223"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>vwarn</code> function is just like <code>warn</code> except that the
parameters for the handling of the format string <var>format</var> are passed
in as an value of type <code>va_list</code>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>warnx</b> (<var>const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-warnx-224"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>warnx</code> function is roughly equivalent to a call like
     <pre class="smallexample">            error (0, 0, format, <span class="roman">the parameters</span>)
     </pre>
        <p class="noindent">except that the global variables <code>error</code> respects and modifies
are not used.  The difference to <code>warn</code> is that no error number
string is printed. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>vwarnx</b> (<var>const char *format, va_list</var>)<var><a name="index-vwarnx-225"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>vwarnx</code> function is just like <code>warnx</code> except that the
parameters for the handling of the format string <var>format</var> are passed
in as an value of type <code>va_list</code>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>err</b> (<var>int status, const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-err-226"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>err</code> function is roughly equivalent to a call like
     <pre class="smallexample">            error (status, errno, format, <span class="roman">the parameters</span>)
     </pre>
        <p class="noindent">except that the global variables <code>error</code> respects and modifies
are not used and that the program is exited even if <var>status</var> is zero. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>verr</b> (<var>int status, const char *format, va_list</var>)<var><a name="index-verr-227"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>verr</code> function is just like <code>err</code> except that the
parameters for the handling of the format string <var>format</var> are passed
in as an value of type <code>va_list</code>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>errx</b> (<var>int status, const char *format, <small class="dots">...</small></var>)<var><a name="index-errx-228"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>errx</code> function is roughly equivalent to a call like
     <pre class="smallexample">            error (status, 0, format, <span class="roman">the parameters</span>)
     </pre>
        <p class="noindent">except that the global variables <code>error</code> respects and modifies
are not used and that the program is exited even if <var>status</var>
is zero.  The difference to <code>err</code> is that no error number
string is printed. 
</p></blockquote></div>

<!-- err.h -->
<!-- BSD -->
<div class="defun">
&mdash; Function: void <b>verrx</b> (<var>int status, const char *format, va_list</var>)<var><a name="index-verrx-229"></a></var><br>
<blockquote><p>The <code>verrx</code> function is just like <code>errx</code> except that the
parameters for the handling of the format string <var>format</var> are passed
in as an value of type <code>va_list</code>. 
</p></blockquote></div>

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