xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/fmtmsg.3 (revision bdd1243df58e60e85101c09001d9812a789b6bc4)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd August 5, 2002
29.Dt FMTMSG 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm fmtmsg
33.Nd display a detailed diagnostic message
34.Sh LIBRARY
35.Lb libc
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In fmtmsg.h
38.Ft int
39.Fo fmtmsg
40.Fa "long classification" "const char *label" "int severity"
41.Fa "const char *text" "const char *action" "const char *tag"
42.Fc
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn fmtmsg
46function displays a detailed diagnostic message, based on
47the supplied arguments, to
48.Dv stderr
49and/or the system console.
50.Pp
51The
52.Fa classification
53argument is the bitwise inclusive
54.Tn OR
55of zero or one of the manifest constants from
56each of the classification groups below.
57The Output classification group is an exception since both
58.Dv MM_PRINT
59and
60.Dv MM_CONSOLE
61may be specified.
62.Bl -tag -width indent
63.It Output
64.Bl -tag -width ".Dv MM_CONSOLE"
65.It Dv MM_PRINT
66Output should take place on
67.Dv stderr .
68.It Dv MM_CONSOLE
69Output should take place on the system console.
70.El
71.It "Source of Condition (Major)"
72.Bl -tag -width ".Dv MM_CONSOLE"
73.It Dv MM_HARD
74The source of the condition is hardware related.
75.It Dv MM_SOFT
76The source of the condition is software related.
77.It Dv MM_FIRM
78The source of the condition is firmware related.
79.El
80.It "Source of Condition (Minor)"
81.Bl -tag -width ".Dv MM_CONSOLE"
82.It Dv MM_APPL
83The condition was detected at the application level.
84.It Dv MM_UTIL
85The condition was detected at the utility level.
86.It Dv MM_OPSYS
87The condition was detected at the operating system level.
88.El
89.It Status
90.Bl -tag -width ".Dv MM_CONSOLE"
91.It Dv MM_RECOVER
92The application can recover from the condition.
93.It Dv MM_NRECOV
94The application is unable to recover from the condition.
95.El
96.El
97.Pp
98Alternatively, the
99.Dv MM_NULLMC
100manifest constant may be used to specify no classification.
101.Pp
102The
103.Fa label
104argument indicates the source of the message.
105It is made up of two fields separated by a colon
106.Pq Ql \&: .
107The first field can be up to 10 bytes,
108and the second field can be up to 14 bytes.
109The
110.Dv MM_NULLLBL
111manifest constant may be used to specify no label.
112.Pp
113The
114.Fa severity
115argument identifies the importance of the condition.
116One of the following manifest constants should be used for this argument.
117.Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Dv MM_WARNING"
118.It Dv MM_HALT
119The application has confronted a serious fault and is halting.
120.It Dv MM_ERROR
121The application has detected a fault.
122.It Dv MM_WARNING
123The application has detected an unusual condition,
124that could be indicative of a problem.
125.It Dv MM_INFO
126The application is providing information about a non-error condition.
127.It Dv MM_NOSEV
128No severity level supplied.
129.El
130.Pp
131The
132.Fa text
133argument details the error condition that caused the message.
134There is no limit on the size of this character string.
135The
136.Dv MM_NULLTXT
137manifest constant may be used to specify no text.
138.Pp
139The
140.Fa action
141argument details how the error-recovery process should begin.
142Upon output,
143.Fn fmtmsg
144will prefix
145.Qq Li "TO FIX:"
146to the beginning of the
147.Fa action
148argument.
149The
150.Dv MM_NULLACT
151manifest constant may be used to specify no action.
152.Pp
153The
154.Fa tag
155argument should reference online documentation for the message.
156This usually includes the
157.Fa label
158and a unique identifying number.
159An example tag is
160.Qq Li BSD:ls:168 .
161The
162.Dv MM_NULLTAG
163manifest constant may be used to specify no tag.
164.Sh RETURN VALUES
165The
166.Fn fmtmsg
167function returns
168.Dv MM_OK
169upon success,
170.Dv MM_NOMSG
171to indicate output to
172.Dv stderr
173failed,
174.Dv MM_NOCON
175to indicate output to the system console failed, or
176.Dv MM_NOTOK
177to indicate output to
178.Dv stderr
179and the system console failed.
180.Sh ENVIRONMENT
181The
182.Ev MSGVERB
183(message verbosity)
184environment variable specifies which arguments to
185.Fn fmtmsg
186will be output to
187.Dv stderr ,
188and in which order.
189.Ev MSGVERB
190should be a colon
191.Pq Ql \&:
192separated list of identifiers.
193Valid identifiers include:
194.Li label , severity , text , action ,
195and
196.Li tag .
197If invalid identifiers are specified or incorrectly separated,
198the default message verbosity and ordering will be used.
199The default ordering is equivalent to a
200.Ev MSGVERB
201with a value of
202.Qq Li label:severity:text:action:tag .
203.Sh EXAMPLES
204The code:
205.Bd -literal -offset indent
206fmtmsg(MM_UTIL | MM_PRINT, "BSD:ls", MM_ERROR,
207    "illegal option -- z", "refer to manual", "BSD:ls:001");
208.Ed
209.Pp
210will output:
211.Bd -literal -offset indent
212BSD:ls: ERROR: illegal option -- z
213TO FIX: refer to manual BSD:ls:001
214.Ed
215.Pp
216to
217.Dv stderr .
218.Pp
219The same code, with
220.Ev MSGVERB
221set to
222.Qq Li "text:severity:action:tag" ,
223produces:
224.Bd -literal -offset indent
225illegal option -- z: ERROR
226TO FIX: refer to manual BSD:ls:001
227.Ed
228.Sh SEE ALSO
229.Xr err 3 ,
230.Xr exit 3 ,
231.Xr strerror 3
232.Sh STANDARDS
233The
234.Fn fmtmsg
235function conforms to
236.St -p1003.1-2001 .
237.Sh HISTORY
238The
239.Fn fmtmsg
240function first appeared in
241.Fx 5.0 .
242.Sh BUGS
243Specifying
244.Dv MM_NULLMC
245for the
246.Fa classification
247argument makes little sense, since without an output specified,
248.Fn fmtmsg
249is unable to do anything useful.
250.Pp
251In order for
252.Fn fmtmsg
253to output to the system console, the effective
254user must have appropriate permission to write to
255.Pa /dev/console .
256This means that on most systems
257.Fn fmtmsg
258will return
259.Dv MM_NOCON
260unless the effective user is root.
261