strerror()               Save System Error Message
 
 #include   <string.h>                   Required for declarations only
 
 char       *strerror(string);
 char       *string;                     User supplied message
 
    strerror() generates customized error messages.
 
    Returns:    If 'string' is NULL, a pointer to the most recently
                generated system error message is returned.  The string
                is terminated by a new-line character. The error number
                is stored in 'errno' (defined in <stdlib.h>). strerror()
                accesses the error message by using the 'errno' value as
                an index to 'sys_errlist',  which holds the system error
                messages.
 
                If 'string' is not NULL, strerror() returns a pointer to
                a string which contains the customized error message
                (supplied as the argument to 'strerror'), a colon, a
                space, the last system error message, and a new-line
                character.
 
      Notes:    For accurate results, call strerror() immediately after a
                routine returns to avoid 'errno' being overwritten by
                subsequent routine calls.
 
                Unlike perror(), strerror() does not actually print any
                messages.  The program is responsible for printing the
                returned message, as shown in the example below.
 
  -------------------------------- Example ---------------------------------
 
    This example tries to open a file, and prints a customized error
    message and exits if unable to do so.
 
         #include <string.h>
         #include <stdio.h>             /* for printf*/
         #include <fcntl.h>             /* constants defined */
         #include <sys\types.h>
         #include <sys\stat.h>          /* constants defined */
         #include <io.h>                /* for open */
 
         int fh;
 
         main()
         {
               if ((fh = open("invoice.dat",O_RDWR)) == -1)
                  printf(strerror("ERROR OPENING INVOICE FILE"));
                  exit(1);
         }

Seealso:


 perror()