User Commands fmtmsg(1)
NAME
fmtmsg - display a message on stderr or system console
SYNOPSIS
fmtmsg [-c class] [-u subclass] [-l label] [-s severity]
[-t tag] [-a action] text
DESCRIPTION
Based on a message's classification component, the fmtmsg
utility either writes a formatted message to stderr or writes a formatted message to the console.A formatted message consists of up to five standard com-
ponents (see environment variable MSGVERB in the ENVIRONMENTVARIABLES section of this page). The classification and sub-
class components are not displayed as part of the standard message, but rather define the source of the message and direct the display of the formatted message. OPTIONS The following options are supported:-c class Describes the source of the message. Valid
keywords are: hard The source of the condition is hardware. soft The source of the condition is software. firm The source of the condition is firmware.-u subclass A list of keywords (separated by commas)
that further defines the message and directs the display of the message. Valid keywords are: appl The condition originated in an application. This keyword should not be used in combination with either util or opsys.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 1
User Commands fmtmsg(1)
util The condition originated in a utility. This keyword should not be used in combination with either appl or opsys. opsys The message originated in the kernel. This keyword should not be used in combination with either appl or util. recov The application will recover from the condition. This keywordshould not be used in combina-
tion with nrecov. nrecov The application will not recover from the condition. This keywordshould not be used in combina-
tion with recov.print Print the message to the stan-
dard error stream stderr. console Write the message to the system console. print, console, or both may be used.-l label Identifies the source of the message.
-s severity Indicates the seriousness of the error. The
keywords and definitions of the standard levels of severity are: halt The application has encountered a severe fault and is halting. error The application has detected a fault.warn The application has detected a con-
dition that is out of the ordinary and might be a problem.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 2
User Commands fmtmsg(1)
info The application is providing infor-
mation about a condition that is not in error.-t tag The string containing an identifier for the
message.-a action A text string describing the first step in
the error recovery process. This string mustbe written so that the entire action argu-
ment is interpreted as a single argument.fmtmsg precedes each action string with the
TO FIX: prefix. text A text string describing the condition. Must be written so that the entire text argument is interpreted as a single argument.EXAMPLES
Example 1 Standard message formatThe following example of fmtmsg produces a complete message
in the standard message format and displays it to the stan-
dard error stream.example% fmtmsg -c soft -u recov,print,appl -l UX:cat \
-s error -t UX:cat:001 -a "refer to manual" "invalid syntax"
produces:UX:cat: ERROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual UX:cat:138 Example 2 Using MSGVERB When the environment variable MSGVERB is set as follows:SunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 3
User Commands fmtmsg(1)
MSGVERB=severity:text:actionand Example 1 is used, fmtmsg produces:
ERROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manualExample 3 Using SEV_LEVEL
When the environment variable SEV_LEVEL is set as follows:
SEV_LEVEL=note,5,NOTE
the following fmtmsg command:
example% fmtmsg -c soft -u print -l UX:cat -s note \
-a "refer to manual" "invalid syntax"
produces: NOTE: invalid syntax TO FIX: refer to manual and displays the message on stderr. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLESThe environment variables MSGVERB and SEV_LEVEL control the
behavior of fmtmsg. MSGVERB is set by the administrator in
the /etc/profile for the system. Users can override the value of MSGVERB set by the system by resetting MSGVERB in their own .profile files or by changing the value in theircurrent shell session. SEV_LEVEL can be used in shell
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User Commands fmtmsg(1)
scripts.MSGVERB tells fmtmsg which message components to select when
writing messages to stderr. The value of MSGVERB is acolon-separated list of optional keywords. MSGVERB can be
set as follows: MSGVERB=[keyword[:keyword[:...]]] export MSGVERB Valid keywords are: label, severity, text, action, and tag. If MSGVERB contains a keyword for a component and thecomponent's value is not the component's null value, fmtmsg
includes that component in the message when writing the mes-
sage to stderr. If MSGVERB does not include a keyword for a message component, that component is not included in the display of the message. The keywords may appear in any order. If MSGVERB is not defined, if its value is the null string, if its value is not of the correct format, or if it contains keywords other than the valid ones listed above,fmtmsg selects all components.
MSGVERB affects only which message components are selected for display. All message components are included in console messages.SEV_LEVEL defines severity levels and associates print
strings with them for use by fmtmsg. The standard severity
levels shown below cannot be modified. Additional severity levels can be defined, redefined, and removed. 0 (no severity is used) 1 HALT2 ERROR
3 WARNING 4 INFOSunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 5
User Commands fmtmsg(1)
SEV_LEVEL is set as follows:
description is a comma-separated list containing three
fields:SEV_LEVEL= [description[:description[:...]]]
export SEV_LEVEL
description=severity_keyword, level, printstring
severity_keyword is a character string used as the keyword
with the -s severity option to fmtmsg.
level is a character string that evaluates to a positive integer (other than 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4, which are reserved for the standard severity levels). If the keywordseverity_keyword is used, level is the severity value passed
on to fmtmsg(3C).
printstring is the character string used by fmtmsg in the
standard message format whenever the severity value level is used.If SEV_LEVEL is not defined, or if its value is null, no
severity levels other than the defaults are available. If a description in the colon separated list is not a comma separated list containing three fields, or if the secondfield of a comma separated list does not evaluate to a posi-
tive integer, that description in the colon separated list is ignored. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned:0 All the requested functions were executed success-
fully. 1 The command contains a syntax error, an invalid option, or an invalid argument to an option. 2 The function executed with partial success, however the message was not displayed on stderr.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 6
User Commands fmtmsg(1)
4 The function executed with partial success; however, the message was not displayed on the system console. 32 No requested functions were executed successfully.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcs ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
addseverity(3C), fmtmsg(3C), attributes(5)
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 20 Jul 1994 7