ch50_12.htm

the unix power tools

CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch23_10.htm"
TITLE="Deletion with Prejudice: rm -f "
>23.10</A
>, <A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch23_17.htm"
TITLE="Problems Deleting Directories "
>23.17</A
>)</SPAN
>.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>intruder alert!</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59837"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59839"
></A
>Comes from <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>whoami</EM
>, and means that <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>whoami</EM
> can't look you up in
the
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/passwd</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch36_03.htm"
TITLE="Changing the Field Delimiter "
>36.3</A
>)</SPAN
>
file.
This probably means that someone managed
to delete or corrupt <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/passwd</EM
>.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>make: must be a separator on rules line 46</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59852"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59854"
></A
>The bane of everyone who uses
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>make</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch28_13.htm"
TITLE="make Isn't Just for Programmers! "
>28.13</A
>)</SPAN
>.
<EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>make</EM
>'s &quot;rules&quot; lines must begin with a TAB character.
Spaces are not
acceptable.
This means that you used spaces, rather than a tab.
Some
editors (and reportedly, even some networks) will change tabs to
spaces automatically&nbsp;- so even if you've been careful to observe the
rule, you may still run across this message.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>not a typewriter</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59865"
></A
>As someone on the Net said, &quot;Damn right, this isn't a typewriter.
That's a problem?&quot;
Seriously, though:
this is an obsolete message
that still crops up occasionally.
It means that the program attempted
to perform some I/O operation that would be legal on a terminal,
except that it wasn't writing to a terminal:
it was writing to a file,
or to a pipe, etc.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>not enough memory</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59872"
></A
>There isn't enough<A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59874"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59876"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59878"
></A
>
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
>swap space (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="glossary.htm#UPT-ART-1010"
TITLE="Glossary"
>52.9</A
>)</SPAN
>
to run your program.
Note that many
modern UNIX systems allow the system administrator
to create new &quot;swapping files&quot;;
this may help you to work around the problem without reconfiguring a
disk drive.
Under SunOS, for example, you'd use the <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>mkfile</EM
> and
<EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>swapon</EM
> commands to solve this problem.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>segmentation fault (core dumped)</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59888"
></A
>A segmentation fault means that the program you're running attempted
to read or write some address in memory that wasn't assigned to it.
If it's a program that you wrote, a segmentation fault probably means
that a pointer is pointing to something strange.
If it's a standard
UNIX utility, well&nbsp;- it really means the same thing (not that it
helps).
Most likely, though, you've given the program strange 
input&nbsp;- the input may be illegal, there may be more than the program
can handle, etc.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>typesetter busy</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59895"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59897"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59899"
></A
>I've seen this when using 
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch43_12.htm"
TITLE="Typesetting Overview "
>43.12</A
>)</SPAN
>;
it usually means that you haven't specified the output device
correctly; i.e., that you haven't used the <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>-t</EM
> option, which
sends the output to standard output, for post-processing by some
translator.
Actually, it's very rare for a user to invoke <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
>
directly.
<EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
> is usually run through some kind of a shell
script.
If you see this message, the shell script is doing the wrong
thing.
What does the message really mean?
Simple.
<EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
>, on
its own, generates output for a C/A/T phototypesetter.
These
typesetters were obsolete 10 or 15 years ago, and are now probably all
rusting in junk heaps.
But nobody bothered to change <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
>. If
you don't include the <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>-t</EM
> option, <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
> tries to send the
output to the typesetter; when it fails (because the typesetter
doesn't exist), <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>troff</EM
> decides that the typesetter must be &quot;busy.&quot;&#13;</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>who are you?</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59917"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59919"
></A
>Comes from
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>lpr</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch43_02.htm"
TITLE="Introduction to Printing on UNIX "
>43.2</A
>)</SPAN
>,
and means that <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>lpr</EM
> can't look you up in the
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/passwd</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch36_03.htm"
TITLE="Changing the Field Delimiter "
>36.3</A
>)</SPAN
>
file.
This probably means that someone managed
to delete or corrupt <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/passwd</EM
>.</P
></DD
><DT
CLASS="term"
><CODE
CLASS="literal"
>you don't exist.  Go away.</CODE
></DT
><DD
CLASS="listitem"
><P
CLASS="para"
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59933"
></A
><A
CLASS="indexterm"
NAME="AUTOID-59935"
></A
>I've never actually seen this message, though it's part of the UNIX
mythology.
Reportedly, it can come from the
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>talk</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch01_33.htm"
TITLE="UNIX Networking and Communications "
>1.33</A
>)</SPAN
>
program when you try to talk from a <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>tty</EM
> or (usually) a
<SPAN
CLASS="link"
><EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>pty</EM
> (<A
CLASS="linkend"
HREF="ch41_08.htm"
TITLE="ptys and Window Systems "
>41.8</A
>)</SPAN
>
that isn't in the list of logged-in users, <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/utmp</EM
>.
One of our readers
got the message as he tried to reboot his computer
after accidentally removing the <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>root</EM
> entry in <EM
CLASS="emphasis"
>/etc/passwd</EM
>
<CODE
CLASS="literal"
>8-(</CODE
>.</P
></DD
></DL
><P
CLASS="para"
>While a lot of the error messages are more-or-less standard, a lot of
them vary from vendor to vendor; some vendors have tried to protect
you from the worst abuse.
I hope that all systems
incorporating the legendary &quot;Don't you hate obscure messages&quot; error
message long since disappeared.</P
><DIV
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><P
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>- <SPAN
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>ML</SPAN
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