This documentation is copyright © 1998-2001 Sandro Sigala <sandro@sigala.it>.
All rights reserved.

Released under the GNU General Public License.

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strerror

Prototype

#include <string.h>

char *strerror(int errnum);

Description

Returns a string describing the error code errnum. The returned string cannot be modified.

Example

View source
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

/*
 * fcheck.c: check if the argument file exists.
 * usage: fcheck <filename>
 */
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    FILE *f;

    if (argc != 2) {
	fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s <filename>\n", argv[0]);
	return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    if ((f = fopen(argv[1], "r")) == NULL) {
	fprintf(stderr, "%s:%s: %s\n", argv[0], argv[1],
		strerror(errno));
	return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
    printf("The `%s' file is readable.\n", argv[1]);
    fclose(f);

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

References

ISO C 9899:1990 7.11.6.2