Printing System Messages

These interfaces are functions that display messages on the system console.

void cmn_err(int level, char *format, ...);

cmn_err(9F) is the mechanism for printing messages on the system console. level may be one of CE_NOTE, CE_WARN, CE_CONT, or CE_PANIC. CE_NOTE indicates a purely informational message. CE_WARN indicates a warning to the user. CE_CONT continues a previous message. And CE_PANIC issues a fatal error and crashes the system.

Use CE_PANIC only for unrecoverable system errors.

Whenever possible, CE_CONT should be used to print system messages. Note that CE_PANIC, CE_NOTE, and CE_WARN cause cmn_err(9F) to always append a new line to the message.

void ddi_report_dev(dev_info_t *dip);

ddi_report_dev(9F) possibly prints a message announcing the presence of a device on the system. Call this function before returning from a successful attach(9E).

char *sprintf(char *buf, const char *fmt, ...);

sprintf(9F) is just like the C library's sprintf(3). Use it to format a message and place it in buf.

void vcmn_err(int level, char *format, va_list ap);

vcmn_err(9F) is a version of cmn_err(9F) that uses varargs (see the stdarg(5) manual page).

char *vsprintf(char *buf, const char *fmt, va_list ap);

vsprintf(9F) is a version of sprintf(9F) that uses varargs (see the stdarg(5) manual page).