gsh tries, when an error occurs, to output an informative error message that will lead you to the solution of your problem. This appendix documents all gsh error messages and what the probable cause of the problem might be. There are five classes of errors: generic gsh, command-entry, syntax, execution, and builtin. Each error is discussed separately. These errors can typically occur at any time and may not be directly related to something the user has done. Some of them are trivial, and some are very serious and should be reported immediately via the GNOBugs web page. gsh: There are stopped jobs. All stopped jobs must be killed before exiting the shell. Use the jobs and kill commands. Command editing errors occur when entering information on the command-line. If you try to move the cursor too far to the left or right of your command-line (i.e. before the first character or after the last character), an error will occur. At present, gsh indicates a command-entry error by generating the bell character (^G), which beeps the speaker. This is to notify you that the action you requested is not possible. Syntax errors occur while gsh is trying to understand the command you have entered on the command-line. Problems arise when you wish to quote an argument (") and only enter one quote. gsh: Missing ending ". A second " wasn't supplied when quoting text. gsh: Missing ending '. A second ' wasn't supplied when quoting text. gsh: Too many arguments, so no dessert tonight. The command-line contained too many arguments which exceeded the available memory allocated by gsh. gsh: Not enough memory for arguments. No memory was available for allocating command-line arguments. gsh: Extra '<' encountered. gsh: Extra '>' or '>>' encountered. gsh: Extra '>&' or '>>&' encountered Text may be redirected to only one file. gsh: No file specified for '<'. gsh: No file specified for '>' or '>>'. gsh: No file specified for '>&' or '>>&'. A file must be specified when redirecting I/O. gsh: '|' conflicts with '>' or '>>'. gsh: '|' conflicts with '<'. Piping is another form of redirection, thus pipes and redirections cannot be mixed. After gsh parses the command-line, it will then execute the command and pass any arguments to the command. If, however, the command does not exist, gsh will report an error. The reason the command does not exist could be either the command name was typed wrong or the command does not exist. $0: Command not found. $0 represents the command to be executed. Either the command name was entered incorrectly or the command does not exist. Recheck the spelling of the command and check $PATH to make sure the command exists in the pathname list. $0: Not executable. $0 represents the command to be executed. Check to ensure that the filetype is correct. heh heh, next time you'll need to specify a command before redirecting. Redirection was specified but the command-line had no command. Cannot fork (too many processes?) An error was encountered forking a process. The most likely culprit is there are too many processes running. These are errors which can be returned by many of the builtin commands. Every builtin also contains a usage message on the proper invocation method. cd: Not a directory Tried to change the cwd to a file that isn't a directory. prefix: could not set prefix, pathname may not exist. GS/OS Prefix command failed, most likely the pathname did not exist or the disk is damaged. setdebug: Unknown flag An unknown flag was sent to setdebug. Run setdebug with no arguments for a list of possible flags. ps: error in kvm_open() ps was unable to access the process data structure. If the kernel data structures are damaged to the point that this error occurs, it is likely that you will not be able to see this error. set: Variable not specified A variable was not passed to set, for example, "set =bar". Make sure the variable name was specified without the preceding dollar sign. For example, if foo is not set, then "set $foo=bar" would be expanded to "set =bar", resulting in this error. kill: Invalid signal number kill: Invalid signal name See the signal(2) manual page for a list of valid signal names and numbers. fg: No job to foreground. bg: No job to background. stop: No job to stop. There aren't currently any jobs so the attempted command is useless. fg: No such job. bg: No such job. stop: No such job. kill: No such job. The specified job (or process) doesn't exist. fg: Gee, this job is already in the foreground. bg: Gee, this job is already in the background. stop: Gee, this job is already stopped. Well, this should be self-explanatory. Also, some of these should be impossible to get, unless you're bound and determined to crash gsh, but then, these errors will keep you from crashing it, so, what's the point?