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NAME |LIBRARY |SYNOPSIS |DESCRIPTION |RETURN VALUE |ATTRIBUTES |STANDARDS |HISTORY |NOTES |SEE ALSO |COLOPHON | |
strsignal(3) Library Functions Manualstrsignal(3)strsignal, sigabbrev_np, sigdescr_np, sys_siglist - return string describing signal
Standard C library (libc,-lc)
#include <string.h>char *strsignal(intsig);const char *sigdescr_np(intsig);const char *sigabbrev_np(intsig);[[deprecated]] extern const char *constsys_siglist[]; Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (seefeature_test_macros(7)):sigabbrev_np(),sigdescr_np(): _GNU_SOURCEstrsignal(): From glibc 2.10 to glibc 2.31: _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L Before glibc 2.10: _GNU_SOURCEsys_siglist: Since glibc 2.19: _DEFAULT_SOURCE glibc 2.19 and earlier: _BSD_SOURCE
Thestrsignal() function returns a string describing the signal number passed in the argumentsig. The string can be used only until the next call tostrsignal(). The string returned bystrsignal() is localized according to theLC_MESSAGEScategory in the current locale. Thesigdescr_np() function returns a string describing the signal number passed in the argumentsig. Unlikestrsignal() this string is not influenced by the current locale. Thesigabbrev_np() function returns the abbreviated name of the signal,sig. For example, given the valueSIGINT, it returns the string "INT". The (deprecated) arraysys_siglist holds the signal description strings indexed by signal number. Thestrsignal() or thesigdescr_np() function should be used instead of this array; see also VERSIONS.
Thestrsignal() function returns the appropriate description string, or an unknown signal message if the signal number is invalid. On some systems (but not on Linux), NULL may instead be returned for an invalid signal number. Thesigdescr_np() andsigabbrev_np() functions return the appropriate description string. The returned string is statically allocated and valid for the lifetime of the program. These functions return NULL for an invalid signal number.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, seeattributes(7). ┌────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐ │Interface│Attribute│Value│ ├────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤ │strsignal() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:strsignal │ │ │ │ locale │ ├────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤ │sigdescr_np(), │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │ │sigabbrev_np() │ │ │ └────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
strsignal() POSIX.1-2008.sigdescr_np()sigabbrev_np() GNU.sys_siglist None.
strsignal() POSIX.1-2008. Solaris, BSD.sigdescr_np()sigabbrev_np() glibc 2.32.sys_siglist Removed in glibc 2.32.
sigdescr_np() andsigabbrev_np() are thread-safe and async-signal- safe.
psignal(3),strerror(3)
This page is part of theman-pages (Linux kernel and C library user-space interface documentation) project. Information about the project can be found at ⟨https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual page, see ⟨https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING⟩. This page was obtained from the tarball man-pages-6.15.tar.gz fetched from ⟨https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/⟩ on 2025-08-11. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up- to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which isnot part of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.orgLinux man-pages 6.15 2025-05-17strsignal(3)Pages that refer to this page:psignal(3), strerror(3), signal(7)
HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 byMichael Kerrisk, author ofThe Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depthLinux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, lookhere. Hosting byjambit GmbH. | |