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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | VERSIONS | ATTRIBUTES | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
STRERROR(3) Linux Programmer's Manual STRERROR(3)
strerror, strerror_r, strerror_l - return string describing error
number
#include <string.h>
char *strerror(int errnum);
int strerror_r(int errnum, char *buf, size_t buflen);
/* XSI-compliant */
char *strerror_r(int errnum, char *buf, size_t buflen);
/* GNU-specific */
char *strerror_l(int errnum, locale_t locale);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
strerror_r():
The XSI-compliant version is provided if:
(_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L) && ! _GNU_SOURCE
Otherwise, the GNU-specific version is provided.
The strerror() function returns a pointer to a string that describes
the error code passed in the argument errnum, possibly using the
LC_MESSAGES part of the current locale to select the appropriate
language. (For example, if errnum is EINVAL, the returned
description will be "Invalid argument".) This string must not be
modified by the application, but may be modified by a subsequent call
to strerror() or strerror_l(). No other library function, including
perror(3), will modify this string.
strerror_r()
The strerror_r() function is similar to strerror(), but is thread
safe. This function is available in two versions: an XSI-compliant
version specified in POSIX.1-2001 (available since glibc 2.3.4, but
not POSIX-compliant until glibc 2.13), and a GNU-specific version
(available since glibc 2.0). The XSI-compliant version is provided
with the feature test macros settings shown in the SYNOPSIS;
otherwise the GNU-specific version is provided. If no feature test
macros are explicitly defined, then (since glibc 2.4) _POSIX_C_SOURCE
is defined by default with the value 200112L, so that the XSI-
compliant version of strerror_r() is provided by default.
The XSI-compliant strerror_r() is preferred for portable
applications. It returns the error string in the user-supplied
buffer buf of length buflen.
The GNU-specific strerror_r() returns a pointer to a string
containing the error message. This may be either a pointer to a
string that the function stores in buf, or a pointer to some
(immutable) static string (in which case buf is unused). If the
function stores a string in buf, then at most buflen bytes are stored
(the string may be truncated if buflen is too small and errnum is
unknown). The string always includes a terminating null byte ('\0').
strerror_l()
strerror_l() is like strerror(), but maps errnum to a locale-
dependent error message in the locale specified by locale. The
behavior of strerror_l() is undefined if locale is the special locale
object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE or is not a valid locale object handle.
The strerror(), strerror_l(), and the GNU-specific strerror_r()
functions return the appropriate error description string, or an
"Unknown error nnn" message if the error number is unknown.
The XSI-compliant strerror_r() function returns 0 on success. On
error, a (positive) error number is returned (since glibc 2.13), or
-1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error (glibc versions
before 2.13).
POSIX.1-2001 and POSIX.1-2008 require that a successful call to
strerror() or strerror_l() shall leave errno unchanged, and note
that, since no function return value is reserved to indicate an
error, an application that wishes to check for errors should
initialize errno to zero before the call, and then check errno after
the call.
EINVAL The value of errnum is not a valid error number.
ERANGE Insufficient storage was supplied to contain the error
description string.
The strerror_l() function first appeared in glibc 2.6.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
attributes(7).
┌───────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│strerror() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:strerror │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│strerror_r(), │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
│strerror_l() │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────┘
strerror() is specified by POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, and C99.
strerror_r() is specified by POSIX.1-2001 and POSIX.1-2008.
strerror_l() is specified in POSIX.1-2008.
The GNU-specific strerror_r() function is a nonstandard extension.
POSIX.1-2001 permits strerror() to set errno if the call encounters
an error, but does not specify what value should be returned as the
function result in the event of an error. On some systems,
strerror() returns NULL if the error number is unknown. On other
systems, strerror() returns a string something like "Error nnn
occurred" and sets errno to EINVAL if the error number is unknown.
C99 and POSIX.1-2008 require the return value to be non-NULL.
The GNU C Library uses a buffer of 1024 characters for strerror().
This buffer size therefore should be sufficient to avoid an ERANGE
error when calling strerror_r() and strerror_l().
err(3), errno(3), error(3), perror(3), strsignal(3), locale(7)
This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
2017-03-13 STRERROR(3)
Pages that refer to this page: assert_perror(3), err(3), errno(3), error(3), mmv_stats_init(3), pcap_strerror(3pcap), perror(3), pmapi(3), pmerrstr(3), sd_bus_error(3), sd_bus_error_add_map(3), sd-bus-errors(3), strsignal(3)