.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991 Regents of the University of California. .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information .\" Processing Systems. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $OpenBSD: strerror.3,v 1.6 2003/06/02 20:18:38 millert Exp $ .\" .Dd June 29, 1991 .Dt STRERROR 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm strerror .Nd get error message string .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft char * .Fn strerror "int errnum" .Ft int .Fn strerror_r "int errnum" "char *strerrbuf" "size_t buflen" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn strerror function returns a pointer to the language-dependent error message string affiliated with the specified error number .Fa errnum . The returned string contains a maximum of .Dv NL_TEXTMAX characters, including the trailing NUL. .Pp The array pointed to is not to be modified by the program, but may be overwritten by subsequent calls to .Fn strerror . .Pp .Fn strerror_r is a thread safe version of .Fn strerror that places the error message in the given buffer .Fa strerrbuf . If the error message is larger then .Fa buflen the message will be truncated to fit within buflen and .Er ERANGE is returned. .Fn strerror_r returns zero upon successful completion. An error number is returned, otherwise. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr intro 2 , .Xr perror 3 , .Xr setlocale 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn strerror function conforms to .St -ansiC . The .Fn strerror_r function conforms to .St -p1003.1 .