strerrorint

Strerrorint is a term used to describe a function that converts an integer error code into a human-readable string. It is not part of the C standard library, and its exact behavior depends on the codebase in which it appears. In practice, strerrorint often serves as a wrapper or convenience layer around existing error-reporting mechanisms, translating numeric codes into messages suitable for logging, diagnostics, or user feedback.

Common characteristics

- Input: typically an int representing an error code. This can be a standard errno value or a project-defined code.

- Output: a string describing the error. Depending on the implementation, this may be a pointer to a static buffer, a thread-local buffer, or a dynamically allocated string.

- Relationship to errno: if the code uses standard errno values, strerrorint may forward to strerror or an equivalent function. For non-standard codes, the mapping may be implemented explicitly in the project.

Implementation notes

- Thread safety: some versions use static buffers and are not thread-safe; others employ thread-local storage or allocate new strings to be freed by the caller.

- Localization: messages may be locale-aware in some implementations or remain in a fixed language in others.

- Portability: Windows environments might implement strerrorint via FormatMessage, while POSIX systems commonly rely on strerror or strerror_r.

Usage considerations

- Ensure the error code domain is well-defined (errno values vs custom codes).

- Decide on memory management: static vs dynamic strings.

- Be aware of potential gaps in mappings for undefined codes.

See also: strerror, strerror_r, strerror_s, FormatMessage, errno, GetLastError.