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fmtmsg(1)			 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  mes‐
       sage to the console.

       A  formatted  message  consists	of up to five standard components (see
       environment variable MSGVERB in the ENVIRONMENT	VARIABLES  section  of
       this  page).  The  classification  and subclass components are not dis‐
       played 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 mes‐
		       sage. Valid keywords are:

		       appl	   The condition originated in an application.
				   This keyword should not be used in combina‐
				   tion with either util or opsys.

		       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  con‐
				   dition.  This keyword should not be used in
				   combination with nrecov.

		       nrecov	   The application will not recover  from  the
				   condition.  This keyword should not be used
				   in combination with recov.

		       print	   Print the message  to  the  standard	 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 condition  that
				is out of the ordinary and might be a problem.

		       info	The application is providing information 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 argument 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 standard 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:

	 MSGVERB=severity:text:action

       and Example 1 is used, fmtmsg produces:

	 ERROR: invalid syntax
	 TO FIX: refer to manual

       Example 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 VARIABLES
       The 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 their current shell session. SEV_LEVEL can be used in shell 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 message to stderr. If MSGVERB does not include a  key‐
       word  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     HALT

       2     ERROR

       3     WARNING

       4     INFO

       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 keyword severity_keyword is used, level is the severity
       value passed on to fmtmsg(3C).

       printstring is the character string used by fmtmsg in the standard mes‐
       sage format whenever the severity value level is used.

       If SEV_LEVEL is not defined, or if its value is null, no severity  lev‐
       els  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 eval‐
       uate to a positive 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 successfully.

       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.

       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 attributes:

       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     │	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │Availability		     │SUNWcs			   │
       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

SEE ALSO
       addseverity(3C), fmtmsg(3C), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.11			  20 Jul 1994			     fmtmsg(1)
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