Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: Re: casts to void Message-ID: <701@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Thu, 15-Aug-85 02:46:07 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.701 Posted: Thu Aug 15 02:46:07 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 03:13:22 EDT References: <485@brl-tgr.ARPA> <361@baylor.UUCP> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 13 > OK. What should my whizzbang filter do when a write fails, other than > write an error message and quit? The canonical UNIX tool should write a message such as "prog: write failed" to stderr (which may be writable even though stdout has a problem), restore terminal modes if necessary, remove temporary files, etc. then exit with a non-zero status code (so that the invoker of the program can detect the problem and take whatever strategic measures are needed). Other more specialized programs may need to take other actions opon occurrence of an error. The important point is to DETECT that an error has occurred, then take appropriate steps (usually, REPORT it).