friendly messages

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <3283 at ficc.uu.net> peter at ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Have you looked at the new "perror()" docs? They describe a 4-component
>error message format for all programs to use, containing the name of the
>program issuing the message, the name of the object responsible, the error
>message itself, and a severity level (INFO, WARNING, ERROR, FATAL).
>	cat: fatal: /dev/dull: No such file or directory

perror() CANNOT do this, as its interface is standardized and has no
room for the additional information (severity and object; the program
name can and probably should be automated).  Presumably there is an
analogous function that accepts the additional information.  The specs
for this interface would be very handy; we could implement it and
start using it now, rather than having to wait a year.

Generally I approve of the extended message format and agree that it
needs to be used by (nearly) all the standard system utilities.

What is supposed to be done when there is no particular object?
	prog: fatal: ???: Insufficient memory available