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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 hard‐
				       ware.

		       soft	       The source of the  condition  is	 soft‐
				       ware.

		       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 applica‐
				       tion.  This  keyword should not be used
				       in  combination	with  either  util  or
				       opsys.

		       util	       The  condition originated in a utility.
				       This keyword should not be used in com‐
				       bination with either appl or opsys.

		       opsys	       The  message  originated in the kernel.
				       This keyword should not be used in com‐
				       bination with either appl or util.

		       recov	       The  application	 will recover from the
				       condition. 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  con‐
				       sole.  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	condi‐
				       tion  that  is  out of the ordinary and
				       might be a problem.

		       info	       The application is  providing  informa‐
				       tion  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  mes‐
		sage was not displayed on stderr.

       4	The  function executed with partial success; however, the mes‐
		sage 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		     │SUNWcsu			   │
       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

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

SunOS 5.10			  20 Jul 1994			     fmtmsg(1)
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