'\" t .\" Copyright 1993 David Metcalfe (david@prism.demon.co.uk) .\" and Copyright (C) 2020 Michael Kerrisk .\" .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft .\" .\" References consulted: .\" Linux libc source code .\" Lewine's _POSIX Programmer's Guide_ (O'Reilly & Associates, 1991) .\" 386BSD man pages .\" Modified Sat Jul 24 17:59:03 1993 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu) .TH strsignal 3 2023-03-30 "Linux man-pages 6.04" .SH NAME strsignal, sigabbrev_np, sigdescr_np, sys_siglist \- return string describing signal .SH LIBRARY Standard C library .RI ( libc ", " \-lc ) .SH SYNOPSIS .nf .B #include .PP .BI "char *strsignal(int " sig ); .BI "const char *sigdescr_np(int " sig ); .BI "const char *sigabbrev_np(int " sig ); .PP .BI "[[deprecated]] extern const char *const " sys_siglist []; .fi .PP .RS -4 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see .BR feature_test_macros (7)): .RE .PP .BR sigabbrev_np (), .BR sigdescr_np (): .nf _GNU_SOURCE .fi .PP .BR strsignal (): .nf From glibc 2.10 to glibc 2.31: _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L Before glibc 2.10: _GNU_SOURCE .fi .PP .IR sys_siglist : .nf Since glibc 2.19: _DEFAULT_SOURCE glibc 2.19 and earlier: _BSD_SOURCE .fi .SH DESCRIPTION The .BR strsignal () function returns a string describing the signal number passed in the argument .IR sig . The string can be used only until the next call to .BR strsignal (). The string returned by .BR strsignal () is localized according to the .B LC_MESSAGES category in the current locale. .PP The .BR sigdescr_np () function returns a string describing the signal number passed in the argument .IR sig . Unlike .BR strsignal () this string is not influenced by the current locale. .PP The .BR sigabbrev_np () function returns the abbreviated name of the signal, .IR sig . For example, given the value .BR SIGINT , it returns the string "INT". .PP The (deprecated) array .I sys_siglist holds the signal description strings indexed by signal number. The .BR strsignal () or the .BR sigdescr_np () function should be used instead of this array; see also VERSIONS. .SH RETURN VALUE The .BR strsignal () function returns the appropriate description string, or an unknown signal message if the signal number is invalid. On some systems (but not on Linux), NULL may instead be returned for an invalid signal number. .PP The .BR sigdescr_np () and .BR sigabbrev_np () functions return the appropriate description string. The returned string is statically allocated and valid for the lifetime of the program. These functions return NULL for an invalid signal number. .SH ATTRIBUTES For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see .BR attributes (7). .ad l .nh .TS allbox; lb lb lbx l l l. Interface Attribute Value T{ .BR strsignal () T} Thread safety T{ MT-Unsafe race:strsignal locale T} T{ .BR sigdescr_np (), .BR sigabbrev_np () T} Thread safety MT-Safe .TE .hy .ad .sp 1 .SH STANDARDS .TP .BR strsignal () POSIX.1-2008. .TP .BR sigdescr_np () .TQ .BR sigabbrev_np () GNU. .TP .I sys_siglist None. .\" glibc commit b1ccfc061feee9ce616444ded8e1cd5acf9fa97f .SH HISTORY .TP .BR strsignal () POSIX.1-2008. Solaris, BSD. .TP .BR sigdescr_np () .TQ .BR sigabbrev_np () glibc 2.32. .TP .I sys_siglist Removed in glibc 2.32. .SH NOTES .BR sigdescr_np () and .BR sigabbrev_np () are thread-safe and async-signal-safe. .SH SEE ALSO .BR psignal (3), .BR strerror (3)