NAME

abort2 — abort process with diagnostics

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdlib.h>

void
abort2(const char *why, int nargs, void **args);

DESCRIPTION

The abort2() system call causes the process to be killed and the specified diagnostic message (with arguments) to be delivered by the kernel to the syslogd(8) daemon.

The why argument points to a NUL-terminated string specifying a reason of the program's termination (maximum 128 characters long). The args array contains pointers which will be logged numerically (with the kernel's ‘%p’ printf(9) format). The nargs argument specifies the number of pointers in args (maximum 16).

The abort2() system call is intended for use in situations where continuation of a process is impossible or for other definitive reasons is unwanted, and normal diagnostic channels cannot be trusted to deliver the message.

RETURN VALUES

The abort2() function never returns.

The process is killed with SIGABRT unless the arguments to abort2() are invalid, in which case SIGKILL is used.

EXAMPLES

#include <stdlib.h>

if (weight_kg > max_load) {
	void *ptrs[3];

	ptrs[0] = (void *)(intptr_t)weight_kg;
	ptrs[1] = (void *)(intptr_t)max_load;
	ptrs[2] = haystack;
	abort2("Camel overloaded", 3, ptrs);
}

SEE ALSO

abort(3), exit(3)

HISTORY

The abort2() system call first appeared in FreeBSD 7.0.

AUTHORS

The abort2() system call was designed by Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@FreeBSD.org>. It was implemented by Wojciech A. Koszek <dunstan@freebsd.czest.pl>.