fmtmsg(1) (Essential Utilities) fmtmsg(1)
NAME
fmtmsg - display a message on stderr or system console
SYNOPSIS
fmtmsg [-c class] [-u subclass] [-l label] [-s severity] [-t tag] [-a
action] text
DESCRIPTION
Based on a message's classification component, fmtmsg either writes a
formatted message to stderr or writes a formatted message to the
console.
A formatted message consists of up to five standard components as
defined below. The classification and subclass components are not
displayed as part of the standard message, but rather define the
source of the message and direct the display of the formatted
message. The valid options are:
-c class Describes the source of the message. Valid keywords are:
hard The source of the condition is hardware.
soft The source of the condition is software.
firm The source of the condition is firmware.
-u subclass A list of keywords (separated by commas) that further
defines the message and directs the display of the
message. Valid keywords are:
appl The condition originated in an application.
This keyword should not be used in
combination with either util or opsys.
util The condition originated in a utility.
This keyword should not be used in
combination with either appl or opsys.
opsys The message originated in the kernel. This
keyword should not be used in combination
with either appl or util.
recov The application will recover from the
condition. This keyword should not be used
in combination with nrecov.
nrecov The application will not recover from the
condition. This keyword should not be used
in combination with recov.
print Print the message to the standard error
stream stderr.
console Write the message to the system console.
print, console, or both may be used.
-l label Identifies the source of the message.
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fmtmsg(1) (Essential Utilities) fmtmsg(1)
-s severity Indicates the seriousness of the error. The keywords and
definitions of the standard levels of severity are:
halt The application has encountered a severe
fault and is halting.
error The application has detected a fault.
warn The application has detected a condition
that is out of the ordinary and might be a
problem.
info The application is providing information
about a condition that is not in error.
-t tag The string containing an identifier for the message.
-a action A text string describing the first step in the error
recovery process. This string must be written so that
the entire action argument is interpreted as a single
argument. fmtmsg precedes each action string with the TO
FIX: prefix.
text A text string describing the condition. Must be written
so that the entire text argument is interpreted as a
single argument.
The environment variables MSGVERB and SEVLEVEL control the behavior
of fmtmsg. MSGVERB is set by the administrator in the /etc/profile
for the system. Users can override the value of MSGVERB set by the
system by resetting MSGVERB in their own .profile files or by
changing the value in their current shell session. SEVLEVEL can be
used in shell scripts.
MSGVERB tells fmtmsg which message components to select when writing
messages to stderr. The value of MSGVERB is a colon separated list
of optional keywords. MSGVERB can be set as follows:
MSGVERB=[keyword[:keyword[:...]]]
export MSGVERB
Valid keywords are: label, severity, text, action, and tag. If
MSGVERB contains a keyword for a component and the component's value
is not the component's null value, fmtmsg includes that component in
the message when writing the message to stderr. If MSGVERB does not
include a keyword for a message component, that component is not
included in the display of the message. The keywords may appear in
any order. If MSGVERB is not defined, if its value is the null
string, if its value is not of the correct format, or if it contains
keywords other than the valid ones listed above, fmtmsg selects all
components.
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fmtmsg(1) (Essential Utilities) fmtmsg(1)
MSGVERB affects only which message components are selected for
display. All message components are included in console messages.
SEVLEVEL defines severity levels and associates print strings with
them for use by fmtmsg. The standard severity levels shown below
cannot be modified. Additional severity levels can be defined,
redefined, and removed.
0 (no severity is used)
1 HALT
2 ERROR
3 WARNING
4 INFO
SEVLEVEL is set as follows:
SEVLEVEL=[description[:description[:...]]]
export SEVLEVEL
description is a comma-separated list containing three fields:
description=severity_keyword,level,printstring
severity_keyword is a character string used as the keyword with the
-s severity option to fmtmsg.
level is a character string that evaluates to a positive integer
(other than 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, which are reserved for the standard
severity levels). If the keyword severity_keyword is used, level is
the severity value passed on to fmtmsg(3C).
printstring is the character string used by fmtmsg in the standard
message format whenever the severity value level is used.
If SEVLEVEL is not defined, or if its value is null, no severity
levels other than the defaults are available. If a description in
the colon separated list is not a comma separated list containing
three fields, or if the second field of a comma separated list does
not evaluate to a positive integer, that description in the colon
separated list is ignored.
DIAGNOSTICS
The exit codes for fmtmsg are the following:
0 All the requested functions were executed successfully.
1 The command contains a syntax error, an invalid option,
or an invalid argument to an option.
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fmtmsg(1) (Essential Utilities) fmtmsg(1)
2 The function executed with partial success, however the
message was not displayed on stderr.
4 The function executed with partial success, however the
message was not displayed on the system console.
32 No requested functions were executed successfully.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: The following example of fmtmsg produces a complete
message in the standard message format and displays it to the
standard error stream:
fmtmsg -c soft -u recov,print,appl -l UX:cat -s error -t
UX:cat:001 -a "refer to manual" "invalid syntax"
produces:
UX:cat: ERROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual UX:cat:001
Example 2: When the environment variable MSGVERB is set as follows:
MSGVERB=severity:text:action
and Example 1 is used, fmtmsg produces:
ERROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual
Example 3: When the environment variable SEVLEVEL is set as
follows:
SEVLEVEL=note,5,NOTE
the following fmtmsg command:
fmtmsg -c soft -u print -l UX:cat -s note -a "refer to manual"
"invalid syntax"
produces:
UX:cat: NOTE: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual
and displays the message on stderr.
SEE ALSO
addsverity(3C), fmtmsg(3C) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
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