errno - Man Page

error return value

Prolog

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

Synopsis

#include <errno.h>

Description

The lvalue errno is used by many functions to return error values.

Many functions provide an error number in errno, which has type int and is defined in <errno.h>. The value of errno shall be defined only after a call to a function for which it is explicitly stated to be set and until it is changed by the next function call or if the application assigns it a value. The value of errno should only be examined when it is indicated to be valid by a function's return value. Applications shall obtain the definition of errno by the inclusion of <errno.h>. No function in this volume of POSIX.1-2017 shall set errno to 0. The setting of errno after a successful call to a function is unspecified unless the description of that function specifies that errno shall not be modified.

It is unspecified whether errno is a macro or an identifier declared with external linkage. If a macro definition is suppressed in order to access an actual object, or a program defines an identifier with the name errno, the behavior is undefined.

The symbolic values stored in errno are documented in the Errors sections on all relevant pages.

Return Value

None.

Errors

None.

The following sections are informative.

Examples

None.

Application Usage

Previously both POSIX and X/Open documents were more restrictive than the ISO C standard in that they required errno to be defined as an external variable, whereas the ISO C standard required only that errno be defined as a modifiable lvalue with type int.

An application that needs to examine the value of errno to determine the error should set it to 0 before a function call, then inspect it before a subsequent function call.

Rationale

None.

Future Directions

None.

See Also

Section 2.3, Error Numbers

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, <errno.h>

Info

2017 IEEE/The Open Group POSIX Programmer's Manual