NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

lfmt [−c][−fflags][−llabel][−sseverity][−gcatalog: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 stderr. 

lfmt encapsulates the output in the standard error message format. 

lfmt forwards its output to the logging and monitoring facility.  Optionnaly, 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 −fflags 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), and firm (firmware). 

Message source subclassification
Identifies the type of software in which the problem is spotted. Identifiers are: appl (application), util (utility), and opsys (operating system). 

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 LC_MESSAGES or LANG environment variables), or if the message number is out of bound, 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 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 -llabel option, the message is displayed in the format:

severity: text

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

ERRORS

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

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

  —  Essential Utilities