pfmt(1)                                                                pfmt(1)



NAME
     pfmt - display error message in standard format

SYNOPSIS
     pfmt [-l label][-s severity][-g catalog:msgid] format [args]

DESCRIPTION
     pfmt uses format for printf style formatting of args.  pfmt encapsulates
     the output in the standard error message format and displays it on
     stderr.

     The following options are available.

     -l label    Specify the label string to be displayed with the message
                 (for example, "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 or when the environment
                 variable NOMSGLABEL has been set.  Setting the NOMSGLABEL to
                 turn off the label portion of the message.  Can be used in
                 conjunction with the NOMSGSEVERITY environment variable.

     -s severity Specify the severity string to be displayed with the message.
                 Acceptable strings include the standard severities in either
                 their print string (that is, HALT, ERROR, INFO, WARNING, and
                 "TO FIX") or keyword (that is, 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,
                 unless the NOMSGSEVERITY environment variable has been set.
                 Setting the NOMSGSEVERITY to turn off the severity portion of
                 the message.  Can be used in conjunction with the NOMSGLABEL
                 environment variable.

     -g catalog:msgid
                 Specify that a localized version of format should be
                 retrieved from a locale-specific message database.  catalog
                 indicates 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) or the characters
                 / (slash) and : (colon).

                 msgid is a positive number that indicates the index of the

                 string into the message database.

                 If catalog does not exist in the current locale (identified
                 by the LCMESSAGES or LANG environment variables), or if
                 msgid is out of bounds, 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 the format string



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pfmt(1)                                                                pfmt(1)



                 if msgid 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 -l label 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 the following:


          label: severity: text

          label: TO FIX: text


EXAMPLE

     Example 1:


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


     displays the message:


          UX:test: ERROR: Syntax error


SEE ALSO

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


DIAGNOSTICS

     Upon success, pfmt exits with code 0.


     Upon failure, pfmt exits with the following codes:


     1    write error


     3    syntax error


















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