psignal(3)

NAME

psignal, strsignal, sys_siglist, sys_signame - system signal

messages

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <signal.h>
void
psignal(unsigned sig, const char *s);
extern const char * const sys_siglist[];
extern const char * const sys_signame[];
#include <string.h>
char *
strsignal(int sig);

DESCRIPTION

The psignal() and strsignal() functions locate the descrip

tive message
string for a signal number.

The strsignal() function accepts a signal number argument

sig and returns
a pointer to the corresponding message string.

The psignal() function accepts a signal number argument sig

and writes it
to the standard error. If the argument s is non-NULL and

does not point
to the null character, s is written to the standard error

file descriptor
prior to the message string, immediately followed by a colon

and a space.
If the signal number is not recognized (sigaction(2)), the

string
``Unknown signal'' is produced.

The message strings can be accessed directly through the ex

ternal array
sys_siglist, indexed by recognized signal numbers. The ex

ternal array
sys_signame is used similarly and contains short, lower-case

abbreviations for signals which are useful for recognizing signal

names in user
input. The defined variable NSIG contains a count of the

strings in
sys_siglist and sys_signame.

SEE ALSO

sigaction(2), perror(3), strerror(3)

HISTORY

The psignal() function appeared in 4.2BSD.

BSD February 27, 1995

BSD