2.2 Error reporting

Most BFD functions return nonzero on success (check their individual documentation for precise semantics). On an error, they call bfd_set_error to set an error condition that callers can check by calling bfd_get_error. If that returns bfd_error_system_call, then check errno.

The easiest way to report a BFD error to the user is to use bfd_perror.

2.2.1 Type bfd_error_type

The values returned by bfd_get_error are defined by the enumerated type bfd_error_type.

typedef enum bfd_error
{
  bfd_error_no_error = 0,
  bfd_error_system_call,
  bfd_error_invalid_target,
  bfd_error_wrong_format,
  bfd_error_wrong_object_format,
  bfd_error_invalid_operation,
  bfd_error_no_memory,
  bfd_error_no_symbols,
  bfd_error_no_armap,
  bfd_error_no_more_archived_files,
  bfd_error_malformed_archive,
  bfd_error_missing_dso,
  bfd_error_file_not_recognized,
  bfd_error_file_ambiguously_recognized,
  bfd_error_no_contents,
  bfd_error_nonrepresentable_section,
  bfd_error_no_debug_section,
  bfd_error_bad_value,
  bfd_error_file_truncated,
  bfd_error_file_too_big,
  bfd_error_on_input,
  bfd_error_invalid_error_code
}
bfd_error_type;

2.2.1.1 bfd_get_error

Synopsis

bfd_error_type bfd_get_error (void);

Description
Return the current BFD error condition.

2.2.1.2 bfd_set_error

Synopsis

void bfd_set_error (bfd_error_type error_tag);

Description
Set the BFD error condition to be error_tag.

error_tag must not be bfd_error_on_input. Use bfd_set_input_error for input errors instead.

2.2.1.3 bfd_set_input_error

Synopsis

void bfd_set_input_error (bfd *input, bfd_error_type error_tag);

Description
Set the BFD error condition to be bfd_error_on_input. input is the input bfd where the error occurred, and error_tag the bfd_error_type error.

2.2.1.4 bfd_errmsg

Synopsis

const char *bfd_errmsg (bfd_error_type error_tag);

Description
Return a string describing the error error_tag, or the system error if error_tag is bfd_error_system_call.

2.2.1.5 bfd_perror

Synopsis

void bfd_perror (const char *message);

Description
Print to the standard error stream a string describing the last BFD error that occurred, or the last system error if the last BFD error was a system call failure. If message is non-NULL and non-empty, the error string printed is preceded by message, a colon, and a space. It is followed by a newline.

2.2.2 BFD error handler

Some BFD functions want to print messages describing the problem. They call a BFD error handler function. This function may be overridden by the program.

The BFD error handler acts like vprintf.

typedef void (*bfd_error_handler_type) (const char *, va_list);

2.2.2.1 _bfd_error_handler

Synopsis

void _bfd_error_handler (const char *fmt, ...) ATTRIBUTE_PRINTF_1;

Description
This is the default routine to handle BFD error messages. Like fprintf (stderr, ...), but also handles some extra format specifiers.

%pA section name from section. For group components, prints group name too. %pB file name from bfd. For archive components, prints archive too.

Beware: Only supports a maximum of 9 format arguments.

2.2.2.2 bfd_set_error_handler

Synopsis

bfd_error_handler_type bfd_set_error_handler (bfd_error_handler_type);

Description
Set the BFD error handler function. Returns the previous function.

2.2.2.3 bfd_set_error_program_name

Synopsis

void bfd_set_error_program_name (const char *);

Description
Set the program name to use when printing a BFD error. This is printed before the error message followed by a colon and space. The string must not be changed after it is passed to this function.

2.2.3 BFD assert handler

If BFD finds an internal inconsistency, the bfd assert handler is called with information on the BFD version, BFD source file and line. If this happens, most programs linked against BFD are expected to want to exit with an error, or mark the current BFD operation as failed, so it is recommended to override the default handler, which just calls _bfd_error_handler and continues.

typedef void (*bfd_assert_handler_type) (const char *bfd_formatmsg,
                                         const char *bfd_version,
                                         const char *bfd_file,
                                         int bfd_line);

2.2.3.1 bfd_set_assert_handler

Synopsis

bfd_assert_handler_type bfd_set_assert_handler (bfd_assert_handler_type);

Description
Set the BFD assert handler function. Returns the previous function.