Fwd: No such file or directory

[Michael Williamson]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com>
Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2013 10:41:07 -0700
Subject: Re: No such file or directory
To: Michael Williamson <michael.h.williamson@gmail.com>

On 01/02/2013 10:30 AM, Michael Williamson wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> Thanks for your explanation. I realize now that I should
> submit my suggestion somewhere besides bug-bash, and
> I am researching that. But, I have another question.
>
> Why does the man page have the complete, accurate error
> message for ENOENT, but not glibc?

Did you mean for this to go to the list (as other people might be
interested in the question and answer)?  And if so, please don't top-post.

strerror() is full of historical baggage - changing the strings it
outputs is not done lightly, even the string printed is not always the
best fit for all documented cases in which a particular error is
returned.  Thus, the man pages will ALWAYS be a better fit than what
glibc can cram into the limited abilities of strerror().

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org


OK, thanks for that explanation Eric. In that case, my naive suggestion
would be to introduce a new glibc function, such as strerror_verbose.

-Mike

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