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From: wendt@arizona.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: A better perror() (Was: Re: Accessing argc ...)
Message-ID: <1882@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: Tue, 18-Aug-87 19:05:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: megaron.1882
Posted: Tue Aug 18 19:05:25 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Aug-87 01:36:02 EDT
References: <22@flmis06.ATT.COM> <28700015@ccvaxa> <853@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <1351@killer.UUCP>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 12

Another problem with error reporting on Unix is that there's no way
that I know of to translate open file id's back into filenames.
Also, I've run on versions that report the error: Bad File ID when you
try to write on a read-only file.  This always takes me weeks to
find.  The system should say Bad Universe, meaning that you're
running your program in an unfortunate alternate universe, in which
this file happens not to be writeable.

Automatic messages generated by the combination of these two
crocks tend to be pretty mysterious.

Alan W.