[9195] in Athena Bugs
decmips 7.3P: perror(3)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Calvin Clark)
Sat Apr 11 23:03:55 1992
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 23:03:42 -0400
From: Calvin Clark <ckclark@mit.edu>
To: bugs@Athena.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: ckclark@mit.edu
System name: hodge
Type and version: KN01 7.3P
Display type: PMAX-MFB
What were you trying to do?
Find out how to look up the error string in ULTRIX.
What's wrong:
The Syntax section of the perror(3) man page has this to say:
Syntax
void perror(s)
char *s;
int sys_nerr;
char *sys_errlist[];
#include <string.h>
char *strerror(err)
int err;
The "Description" section of the man page goes on to describe
the routines, including the use of the array sys_errlist[]:
To simplify variant formatting of messages, the vector of message
strings sys_errlist is provided; errno can be used as an index in this
table to get the message string without the new line.
However, ULTRIX is one of those systems that has no sys_errlist. You
have to use strerror() to get the error string.
What should have happened:
DEC shouldn't have just blindly copied all the BSD man pages.
Please describe any relevant documentation references:
perror(3)
