4.4 Formatting Error Messages

Error messages from compilers should look like this:

sourcefile:lineno: message

If you want to mention the column number, use one of these formats:

sourcefile:lineno:column: message
sourcefile:lineno.column: message

Line numbers should start from 1 at the beginning of the file, and column numbers should start from 1 at the beginning of the line. (Both of these conventions are chosen for compatibility.) Calculate column numbers assuming that space and all ASCII printing characters have equal width, and assuming tab stops every 8 columns. For non-ASCII characters, Unicode character widths should be used when in a UTF-8 locale; GNU libc and GNU gnulib provide suitable wcwidth functions.

The error message can also give both the starting and ending positions of the erroneous text. There are several formats so that you can avoid redundant information such as a duplicate line number. Here are the possible formats:

sourcefile:line1.column1-line2.column2: message
sourcefile:line1.column1-column2: message
sourcefile:line1-line2: message

When an error is spread over several files, you can use this format:

file1:line1.column1-file2:line2.column2: message

Error messages from other noninteractive programs should look like this:

program:sourcefile:lineno: message

when there is an appropriate source file, or like this:

program: message

when there is no relevant source file.

If you want to mention the column number, use this format:

program:sourcefile:lineno:column: message

In an interactive program (one that is reading commands from a terminal), it is better not to include the program name in an error message. The place to indicate which program is running is in the prompt or with the screen layout. (When the same program runs with input from a source other than a terminal, it is not interactive and would do best to print error messages using the noninteractive style.)

The string message should not begin with a capital letter when it follows a program name and/or file name, because that isn’t the beginning of a sentence. (The sentence conceptually starts at the beginning of the line.) Also, it should not end with a period.

Error messages from interactive programs, and other messages such as usage messages, should start with a capital letter. But they should not end with a period.