pfmt(1)                          DG/UX R4.11                         pfmt(1)


NAME
       pfmt - display error message in standard format

SYNOPSIS
       pfmt [-llabel][-sseverity][-gcatalog:msgid] format [args]

DESCRIPTION
       pfmt uses format for printf style formatting of args.  If the -g
       option is specified, pfmt retrieves a localized version of the format
       string from a locale-specific message database.  The output is
       displayed on stderr.

       pfmt encapsulates the output in the standard error message format.
       The -llabel option specifies the label string to be displayed with
       the message (e.g. "UX:cat").  label is a character string no more
       than 25 characters in length; it will be automatically suffixed with
       a colon (:).  When unspecified, no label is displayed as part of the
       message.

       The -sseverity option specifies the severity string to be displayed
       with the message.  Acceptable strings include the standard severities
       in either their print string (i.e. HALT, ERROR, INFO, WARNING, and
       "TO FIX") or keyword (i.e. halt, error, info, warn, and action)
       forms, or any other user-defined string.  A user-defined string will
       be assigned the integer severity value of 5.  The severity will be
       suffixed with a colon (:).  The ERROR severity will be used if no
       severity is specified.

       The -gcatalog:msgnum option specifies that a localized version of the
       format should be retrieved from a message database.  catalog is used
       to indicate the message database that contains the localized version
       of the format string.  catalog must be limited to 14 characters.
       These characters must be selected from a set of all characters
       values, excluding \0 (null) and the ASCII codes for / (slash) and :
       (colon).

       msgnum is a positive number that indicates the index of the string
       into the message database.

       If the catalog does not exist in the current locale (identified by
       the LCMESSAGES or LANG environment variables), or if the message
       number is out of bound, pfmt will attempt to retrieve the message
       from the C locale.  If this second retrieval fails, pfmt uses the
       format string as passed on the command line.

       pfmt will output Message not found!!\n as format string if catalog is
       not a valid catalog name, or if msgnum is not a valid number.

STANDARD ERROR MESSAGE FORMAT
       pfmt displays error messages in the following format:
              label: severity: text

       If no label was defined using the -llabel option, the message is
       displayed in the format:
              severity: text

       If pfmt is called twice to display an error message and a helpful
       action or recovery message, the output can look like:
              label: severity: text
              label: TO FIX: text


ERRORS
       Upon success, pfmt exits with code 0.  Upon failure, pfmt exits with
       the following codes:

       1      write error.

       3      syntax error.

EXAMPLE
            pfmt -l UX:test -s error "Syntax error\n"

       displays the message:
            UX:test: ERROR: Syntax error

SEE ALSO
       environ(5), gettxt(1), lfmt(1), pfmt(3C), printf(1),


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