lfmt(1)                                                             lfmt(1)

NAME
     lfmt - display error message in standard format and pass to logging
     and monitoring services

SYNOPSIS
     lfmt [-c] [-f flags] [-l label] [-s severity] [-g catalog:msgnum]
          format [args]

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

     lfmt encapsulates the output in the standard error message format.

     lfmt forwards its output to the logging and monitoring facility.
     Optionally, lfmt will display the output on the console, with a date
     and time stamp.

     The -c option causes the message to also be displayed along with a
     date/time stamp on the console.

     The -f flags option specifies logging information as a comma-separated
     list of keywords from the sets:

     Major classification
          Identifies the source of the condition. Identifiers are:

          hard (hardware),
          soft (software),
          firm (firmware).

     Message source subclassification
          Identifies the type of software in which the problem is spotted.
          Identifiers are:

          appl (application),
          util (utility),
          opsys (operating system).

     The -l label 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.








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lfmt(1)                                                             lfmt(1)

     The -s severity 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 speci-
     fied.

     The -g catalog: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 char-
     acters 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 bounds, lfmt will attempt to retrieve the message from the C
     locale. If this second retrieval fails, lfmt uses the format string as
     passed on the command line.

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

STANDARD ERROR MESSAGE FORMAT
     lfmt displays error messages in the following format:

          label: severity: text

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

          severity: text

     The environment variable LCALLLABELS is used to determine if labels
     will be added to the text of the messages. The value of LCALLLABELS
     is consulted during the formation of the first message. Labels will be
     added (or not added) to all subsequent messages in the same way.
     Changing or setting LCALLLABELS after the first message will have no
     effect message formation within the same execution.

     If LCALLLABELS is set to the value 1, the label string will be
     included with the message. If LCALLLABELS does not exist, or is
     empty, or is set to 0, only the text of the message is displayed. Any
     other values of LCALLLABELS will produce undefined results.



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lfmt(1)                                                             lfmt(1)

     For example, consider the following message produced when
     LCALLLABELS is set to 1:

          UX:cat: ERROR: Cannot open door: No such file or directory

     If LCALLLABELS had not existed, or was empty, or had been set to 0,
     the above message would have been:

          cat: Cannot open door: No such file or directory

     If lfmt 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

EXIT STATUS
     Upon success, lfmt exits with code 0. Upon failure, lfmt exits with
     the following codes:

     1  write error.

     2  cannot log or forward to console.

     3  syntax error.

EXAMPLE
          lfmt -fsoft,util -l UX:test -s info "test facility enabled\n"

     displays the message to stderr and makes it available for logging:

          UX:test: INFO: test facility enabled

SEE ALSO
     fmtmsg(1), gettxt(1), pfmt(1), printf(1), environ(5).



















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