Chapter 4: Handling Errors in Your Programs
In this chapter, we will learn about error handling in C programs in Linux—specifically, how to catch errors and print relevant information about them. We will also learn how to incorporate this knowledge with what we have previously learned about stdin, stdout, and stderr.
We will continue on the path of system calls and learn about a particular variable called errno. Most system calls use this variable to save specific error values when an error occurs.
Handling errors in your programs will make them more stable. Errors do occur; it's just a matter of handling them correctly. A well-handled error does not seem like an error to the end user. For example, instead of letting your program crash in some mysterious way when the hard drive is filled, it's better to catch the error and print a human-readable and friendly message about it. That way, it merely appears as information to the end user and not an error. That, in...