1 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/lib/et/com_err.3 b/lib/et/com_err.3
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a25f09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/et/com_err.3
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+.\" Copyright (c) 1988 Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
+.\" Student Information Processing Board.  
+.\"
+.TH COM_ERR 3 "22 Nov 1988" SIPB
+.SH NAME
+com_err \- common error display routine
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.nf
+ #include <et/com_err.h>
+void (*\fIproc\fR) (const char *, long, const char *, va_list);
+.PP
+void com_err (const char *whoami, long code, const char *format, ...);
+.PP
+proc = set_com_err_hook (proc);
+.PP
+proc = reset_com_err_hook ();
+.PP
+void initialize_XXXX_error_table ();
+.fi
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.I Com_err
+displays an error message on the standard error stream
+.I stderr
+(see
+.IR stdio (3S))
+composed of the
+.I whoami
+string, which should specify the program name or some subportion of
+a program, followed by an error message generated from the
+.I code
+value (derived from
+.IR compile_et (1)),
+and a string produced using the
+.I format
+string and any following arguments, in the same style as
+.IR fprintf (3).
+
+The behavior of
+.I com_err
+can be modified using
+.I set_com_err_hook;
+this defines a procedure which is called with the arguments passed to
+.I com_err,
+instead of the default internal procedure which sends the formatted
+text to error output.  Thus the error messages from a program can all
+easily be diverted to another form of diagnostic logging, such as
+.IR syslog (3).
+.I Reset_com_err_hook
+may be used to restore the behavior of
+.I com_err
+to its default form.  Both procedures return the previous ``hook''
+value.  These ``hook'' procedures must have the declaration given for
+.I proc
+above in the synopsis.
+
+The
+.I initialize_XXXX_error_table
+routine is generated mechanically by
+.IR compile_et (1)
+from a source file containing names and associated strings.  Each
+table has a name of up to four characters, which is used in place of
+the
+.B XXXX
+in the name of the routine.  These routines should be called before
+any of the corresponding error codes are used, so that the
+.I com_err
+library will recognize error codes from these tables when they are
+used.
+
+The
+.B com_err.h
+header file should be included in any source file that uses routines
+from the
+.I com_err
+library; executable files must be linked using
+.I ``-lcom_err''
+in order to cause the
+.I com_err
+library to be included.
+
+.\" .IR for manual entries
+.\" .PP for paragraph breaks
+
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+compile_et (1), syslog (3).
+
+Ken Raeburn, "A Common Error Description Library for UNIX".