ERRNO(3)                       Library functions                      ERRNO(3)

NAME
       errno - number of last error
SYNOPSIS
       #include <errno.h>
DESCRIPTION
       The  <errno.h> header file defines the integer variable errno, which is
       set by system calls and some library functions in the event of an error
       to  indicate  what  went wrong.  Its value is significant only when the
       call returned an error (usually -1), and a function that  does  succeed
       is allowed to change errno.
       Sometimes,  when  -1 is also a valid successful return value one has to
       zero errno before the call in order to detect possible errors.
       errno is defined by the ISO C standard to be  a  modifiable  lvalue  of
       type  int,  and  must not be explicitly declared; errno may be a macro.
       errno is thread-local; setting it in one thread  does  not  affect  its
       value in any other thread.
       Valid error numbers are all non-zero; errno is never set to zero by any
       library function.  All the error names specified by POSIX.1  must  have
       distinct  values,  with  the exception of EAGAIN and EWOULDBLOCK, which
       may be the same.
       Below is a list of the symbolic error names that are defined on  Linux.
       Some  of  these are marked POSIX.1, indicating that the name is defined
       by POSIX.1-2001, or C99, indicating that the name is defined by C99.
       E2BIG  Argument list too long (POSIX.1)
       EACCES Permission denied (POSIX.1)
       EADDRINUSE
              Address already in use (POSIX.1)
       EADDRNOTAVAIL
              Address not available (POSIX.1)
       EAFNOSUPPORT
              Address family not supported (POSIX.1)
       EAGAIN Resource temporarily unavailable  (may  be  the  same  value  as
              EWOULDBLOCK) (POSIX.1)
       EALREADY
              Connection already in progress (POSIX.1)
       EBADE  Invalid exchange
       EBADF  Bad file descriptor (POSIX.1)
       EBADFD File descriptor in bad state
       EBADMSG
              Bad message (POSIX.1)
       EBADR  Invalid request descriptor
       EBADRQC
              Invalid request code
       EBADSLT
              Invalid slot
       EBUSY  Device or resource busy (POSIX.1)
       ECANCELED
              Operation canceled (POSIX.1)
       ECHILD No child processes (POSIX.1)
       ECHRNG Channel number out of range
       ECOMM  Communication error on send
       ECONNABORTED
              Connection aborted (POSIX.1)
       ECONNREFUSED
              Connection refused (POSIX.1)
       ECONNRESET
              Connection reset (POSIX.1)
       EDEADLK
              Resource deadlock avoided (POSIX.1)
       EDEADLOCK
              Synonym for EDEADLK
       EDESTADDRREQ
              Destination address required (POSIX.1)
       EDOM   Mathematics argument out of domain of function (POSIX.1, C99)
       EDQUOT Disk quota exceeded (POSIX.1)
       EEXIST File exists (POSIX.1)
       EFAULT Bad address (POSIX.1)
       EFBIG  File too large (POSIX.1)
       EHOSTDOWN
              Host is down
       EHOSTUNREACH
              Host is unreachable (POSIX.1)
       EIDRM  Identifier removed (POSIX.1)
       EILSEQ Illegal byte sequence (POSIX.1, C99)
       EINPROGRESS
              Operation in progress (POSIX.1)
       EINTR  Interrupted function call (POSIX.1)
       EINVAL Invalid argument (POSIX.1)
       EIO    Input/output error (POSIX.1)
       EISCONN
              Socket is connected (POSIX.1)
       EISDIR Is a directory (POSIX.1)
       EISNAM Is a named type file
       EKEYEXPIRED
              Key has expired
       EKEYREJECTED
              Key was rejected by service
       EKEYREVOKED
              Key has been revoked
       EL2HLT Level 2 halted
       EL2NSYNC
              Level 2 not synchronized
       EL3HLT Level 3 halted
       EL3RST Level 3 halted
       ELIBACC
              Cannot access a needed shared library
       ELIBBAD
              Accessing a corrupted shared library
       ELIBMAX
              Attempting to link in too many shared libraries
       ELIBSCN
              lib section in a.out corrupted
       ELIBEXEC
              Cannot exec a shared library directly
       ELOOP  Too many levels of symbolic links (POSIX.1)
       EMEDIUMTYPE
              Wrong medium type
       EMFILE Too many open files (POSIX.1)
       EMLINK Too many links (POSIX.1)
       EMSGSIZE
              Message too long (POSIX.1)
       EMULTIHOP
              Multihop attempted (POSIX.1)
       ENAMETOOLONG
              Filename too long (POSIX.1)
       ENETDOWN
              Network is down (POSIX.1)
       ENETRESET
              Connection aborted by network (POSIX.1)
       ENETUNREACH
              Network unreachable (POSIX.1)
       ENFILE Too many open files in system (POSIX.1)
       ENOBUFS
              No buffer space available (POSIX.1 (XSI STREAMS option))
       ENODATA
              No message is available on the STREAM head read queue (POSIX.1)
       ENODEV No such device (POSIX.1)
       ENOENT No such file or directory (POSIX.1)
       ENOEXEC
              Exec format error (POSIX.1)
       ENOKEY Required key not available
       ENOLCK No locks available (POSIX.1)
       ENOLINK
              Link has been severed (POSIX.1)
       ENOMEDIUM
              No medium found
       ENOMEM Not enough space (POSIX.1)
       ENOMSG No message of the desired type (POSIX.1)
       ENONET Machine is not on the network
       ENOPKG Package not installed
       ENOPROTOOPT
              Protocol not available (POSIX.1)
       ENOSPC No space left on device (POSIX.1)
       ENOSR  No STREAM resources (POSIX.1 (XSI STREAMS option))
       ENOSTR Not a STREAM (POSIX.1 (XSI STREAMS option))
       ENOSYS Function not implemented (POSIX.1)
       ENOTBLK
              Block device required
       ENOTCONN
              The socket is not connected (POSIX.1)
       ENOTDIR
              Not a directory (POSIX.1)
       ENOTEMPTY
              Directory not empty (POSIX.1)
       ENOTSOCK
              Not a socket (POSIX.1)
       ENOTSUP
              Operation not supported (POSIX.1)
       ENOTTY Inappropriate I/O control operation (POSIX.1)
       ENOTUNIQ
              Name not unique on network
       ENXIO  No such device or address (POSIX.1)
       EOPNOTSUPP
              Operation not supported on socket (POSIX.1)
              (ENOTSUP  and  EOPNOTSUPP  have  the  same  value  on Linux, but
              according to POSIX.1 these error values should be distinct.)
       EOVERFLOW
              Value too large to be stored in data type (POSIX.1)
       EPERM  Operation not permitted (POSIX.1)
       EPFNOSUPPORT
              Protocol family not supported
       EPIPE  Broken pipe (POSIX.1)
       EPROTO Protocol error (POSIX.1)
       EPROTONOSUPPORT
              Protocol not supported (POSIX.1)
       EPROTOTYPE
              Protocol wrong type for socket (POSIX.1)
       ERANGE Result too large (POSIX.1, C99)
       EREMCHG
              Remote address changed
       EREMOTE
              Object is remote
       EREMOTEIO
              Remote I/O error
       ERESTART
              Interrupted system call should be restarted
       EROFS  Read-only file system (POSIX.1)
       ESHUTDOWN
              Cannot send after transport endpoint shutdown
       ESPIPE Invalid seek (POSIX.1)
       ESOCKTNOSUPPORT
              Socket type not supported
       ESRCH  No such process (POSIX.1)
       ESTALE Stale file handle (POSIX.1))
              This error can occur for NFS and for other file systems
       ESTRPIPE
              Streams pipe error
       ETIME  Timer expired (POSIX.1 (XSI STREAMS option))
              (POSIX.1 says "STREAM ioctl() timeout")
       ETIMEDOUT
              Connection timed out (POSIX.1)
       ETXTBSY
              Text file busy (POSIX.1)
       EUCLEAN
              Structure needs cleaning
       EUNATCH
              Protocol driver not attached
       EUSERS Too many users
       EWOULDBLOCK
              Operation would block (may be same value as EAGAIN) (POSIX.1)
       EXDEV  Improper link (POSIX.1)
       EXFULL Exchange full
NOTES
       A common mistake is to do
              if (somecall() == -1) {
                  printf("somecall() failed\n");
                  if (errno == ...) { ... }
              }
       where errno no longer needs to have the value it had upon  return  from
       somecall()  (i.e.,  it  may have been changed by the printf()).  If the
       value of errno should be preserved across a library call,  it  must  be
       saved:
              if (somecall() == -1) {
                  int errsv = errno;
                  printf("somecall() failed\n");
                  if (errsv == ...) { ... }
              }
       It  was common in traditional C to declare errno manually (i.e., extern
       int errno) instead of including <errno.h>.  Do not do  this.   It  will
       not work with modern versions of the C library.  However, on (very) old
       Unix systems, there may be no <errno.h> and the declaration is  needed.
SEE ALSO
       err(3), error(3), perror(3), strerror(3)

                                  2006-02-09                          ERRNO(3)