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 ENVIRONMENT
VARIABLES 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.
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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 keyword
should not be used in combina-
tion with nrecov.
nrecov The application will not recover
from the condition. This keyword
should 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.
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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 must
be 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 format
The 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: EROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual UX:cat:138
Example 2 Using MSGVERB
When the environment variable MSGVERB is set as follows:
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MSGVERB=severity:text:action
and Example 1 is used, fmtmsg produces:
EROR: invalid syntax
TO FIX: refer to manual
Example 3 Using SEVLEVEL
When the environment variable SEVLEVEL is set as follows:
SEVLEVEL=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 VARIABLES
The environment variables MSGVERB and SEVLEVEL 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 their
current shell session. SEVLEVEL can be used in shell
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scripts.
MSGVERB tells fmtmsg which message components to select when
writing messages to stderr. The value of MSGVERB is a
colon-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 the
component'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.
SEVLEVEL 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 HALT
2 EROR
3 WARNING
4 INFO
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SEVLEVEL is set as follows:
description is a comma-separated list containing three
fields:
SEVLEVEL= [description[:description[:...]
export SEVLEVEL
description=severitykeyword, level, printstring
severitykeyword 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 keyword
severitykeyword 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 SEVLEVEL 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 second
field 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.
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4 The function executed with partial success; however,
the message was not displayed on the system console.
32 No requested functions were executed successfully.
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWcsu
SEE ALSO
addseverity(3C), fmtmsg(3C), attributes(5)
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