xref: /titanic_50/usr/src/man/man3c/err.3c (revision ee63a9c96aceb3724cf0ee9b2e586b0dce3908a2)
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Copyright (c) 1996-2001 Wolfram Schneider. Berlin.
Copyright (c) 1993-1995 Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
Portions Copyright (c) 2007, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the Common Development and Distribution License (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You can obtain a copy of the license at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE or http://www.opensolaris.org/os/licensing. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
When distributing Covered Code, include this CDDL HEADER in each file and include the License file at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE. If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
ERR 3C "Aug 20, 2007"
NAME
err, verr, errx, verrx, warn, vwarn, warnx, vwarnx - formatted error messages
SYNOPSIS

#include <err.h>

void err(int eval, const char *fmt, ...);

void verr(int eval, const char *fmt, va_list args);

void errx(int eval, const char *fmt, ...);

void verrx(int eval, const char *fmt, va_list args);

void warn(const char *fmt, ...);

void vwarn(const char *fmt, va_list args);

void warnx(const char *fmt, ...);

void vwarnx(const char *fmt, va_list args);
DESCRIPTION

The err() and warn() family of functions display a formatted error message on the standard error output. In all cases, the last component of the program name, followed by a colon character and a space, are output. If the fmt argument is not NULL, the formatted error message is output. In the case of the err(), verr(), warn(), and vwarn() functions, the error message string affiliated with the current value of the global variable errno is output next, preceded by a colon character and a space if fmt is not NULL. In all cases, the output is followed by a newline character. The errx(), verrx(), warnx(), and vwarnx() functions will not output this error message string.

The err(), verr(), errx(), and verrx() functions do not return, but instead cause the program to terminate with the status value given by the argument status.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 Display the current errno information string and terminate with status indicating failure.

if ((p = malloc(size)) == NULL)
 err(EXIT_FAILURE, NULL);
if ((fd = open(file_name, O_RDONLY, 0)) == -1)
 err(EXIT_FAILURE, "%s", file_name);

Example 2 Display an error message and terminate with status indicating failure.

if (tm.tm_hour < START_TIME)
 errx(EXIT_FAILURE, "too early, wait until %s", start_time_string);

Example 3 Warn of an error.

if ((fd = open(raw_device, O_RDONLY, 0)) == -1)
 warnx("%s: %s: trying the block device",
 raw_device, strerror(errno));
if ((fd = open(block_device, O_RDONLY, 0)) == -1)
 warn("%s", block_device);
WARNINGS

It is important never to pass a string with user-supplied data as a format without using `%s'. An attacker can put format specifiers in the string to mangle the stack, leading to a possible security hole. This holds true even if the string has been built ``by hand'' using a function like snprintf(3C), as the resulting string can still contain user-supplied conversion specifiers for later interpolation by the err() and warn() functions.

Always be sure to use the proper secure idiom:

err(1, "%s", string);
ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability Committed
MT-Level Safe with Exceptions

These functions are safe to use in multithreaded applications as long as setlocale(3C) is not being called to change the locale.

SEE ALSO

exit(3C), getexecname(3C), setlocale(3C), strerror(3C), attributes(5)