HP-UX Error messages

[P. Prinsloo]

Hi,

Could anyone please advise where we can find the meaning of "Additional Information" messages when errors are displayed. I.E.:

HP-UX ERROR 2: No such file
Additional Information: 5

In this example, what is the meaning of the 5?

Best regards.

Peet

[Stefan Farrelly]

I dont think this additional information is available under HP-UX - its an application message. Whatever program/application you were running which gave this additional info 5 message is where you need to look.

HP-UX only has the file /usr/include/sys/errno.h which for Error 2 says; no such file or directory

Im presuming your application 5 message will point to which file or dir it couldnt find.

[Eugeny Brychkov]

#define ENOENT 2 /* No such file or directory */
#define EIO 5 /* I/O error */
--
That's all defined in the OS having errno 2 and 5
Eugeny

[Frank Slootweg]

Please ask your software supplier to issue meaningful error messages or/and to have documentation about these error messages.

Also when posting error messages, do not only post the error message, but also the messages before and after it, which program/software gives this message, circumstances, etc..

As others have pointed out "HP-UX ERROR 2: No such file" *probably* means that *errno* is set to 2. If that is the case, then it would be better to *say* that (i.e. "errno").

You can lookup an errno value with

grep /usr/include/sys/errno.h

which in this case will give the mentioned

#define ENOENT 2 /* No such file or directory */

Now you also know the mnemonic *name* for the errno value, in this case ENOENT.

You can now lookup the *general* meaning of that error in the errno(2) manual page, i.e. "man errno".

A sensible error message also mentions which system call generates the errno value, i.e. for example "open". If so, you can look in the "RETURN VALUE" section of that manual page what the mnemonic name means for *that* system call, i.e. "man 2 open".

I don't know what the 5 in "Additional Information: 5" means. I do not think that it is another errno value, because errno 5 means "#define EIO 5 /* I/O error */" and it is unlikely to get an I/O error for a non-existing file. I *think*, but do not know, that it is a file descriptor number, i.e. it is the sixth (0 through 5)file opened by the program. Rather meaningless for a user and, without the file/system_call name, probably equally meaningless for the supplier/supporter.