Translating Error Messages
These examples are not specific to any particular operating system.
Example 1
In this example, a command generates the following stderr file.
Error opening rc file /etc/arc.rc
No rc file opened.
Ending due to error.
From the contents of the message file, we can see that the program failed to open a resource configuration file.
Either of the following translation tables could match error messages in the message file. Message masks should be general enough to match a set of error messages.
Translation Table 1
# UMET Translation Table 1
#
# Message Mask Exit Code
# ------------ ---------
"*error*" 8
Translation Table 1 will result in a match if any input line contains the word error. The resulting exit code will be 8 if a match occurs.
Translation Table 2
# UMET Translation Table 2
#
# Message Mask Exit Code
# ------------ ---------
"Ending due to error." 8
Translation Table 2 will result in a match only if the exact message text "Ending due to error." appears as a line in the input file. This is less general, but may be sufficient for this command.
Example 2
(This example continues from Example 1.)
In this example, the command now generates the following stderr file.
Error opening rc file /etc/arc.rc
Processing rc file /usr/etc/arc.rc
Ending successfully
From the contents of the message file, we can see that the program failed to open a resource configuration file /etc/arc.rc, but successfully opened file /usr/etc/arc.rc.
Translation table
The following translation table is one of many that could match error messages in the message file.
# UMET Translation Table 1
#
# Message Mask Exit Code
# ------------ ---------
"Ending due to error." 8
"Processing rc file *" 0
"Error opening rc file *" 8
Translation Table 1 contains three entries:
- First entry matches against a specific error message that always indicates an error if present.
- Second and third entries match messages produced by resource configuration file processing.