PSIGNAL(3)

NAME
psignal, strsignal, sys_siglist, sys_signame - system signal messages

LIBRARY
libc

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 descriptive 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 external array sys_siglist, indexed by recognized signal numbers. The external array sys_signame is used similarly and contains short, upper-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.