Unix Error Messages At the USENIX Association conference in Atlanta recently (Ed: 1985/1986) a contest was held to invent the most humorous/bizarre/etc. UN*X error message of the errno(2) 'EERROR' type. This contest had been tried at an earlier European Users Group meeting, where the winning entry was ENOTOBACCO - Read on an empty pipe You get the idea. A partial (alphabetized) list of 'top(?)' entries from Atlanta (and from several readers of hp.unix) follows; if your pun/weirdness tolerance is low, you may want to abandon ship: EBEFOREI - Invalid syntax ECHERNOBYL - Core dumped ECRAY - Program exited before being run EDINGDONG - The daemon is dead EFLAT - System needs tuning EGEEK - Program written by inept Frat member EIEIO - Here-a-bug, there-a-bug, .... EIUD - Missing period ELECTROLUX - Your code could stand to be cleaned up EMILYPOST - Wrong fork END.ARMS.CONTROL - Silo overflow ENOHORSE - Mount failed ENONSEQUITUR - C program not derived from main(){printf("Hello, world");} EWATERGATE - Extended tape gap EWOK - Aliens sighted EWOK - Your code appears to have been stir-fried EWOULDBNICE - The feature you want has not been implemented yet And finally, a sort-of 'period piece': EMR.ED - A host is a host, From coast to coast And nobody talks to a host that's close, Unless the host that isn't close Is busy, hung, or dead. I would also like this new signal to be supported: SIGNUKE - Nuclear event occurred (cannot be caught or ignored :-)