Fresh Hacker News | AI errno(2) values

88 points by zdw 3 days ago | 11 comments

`errno` is a userland concept; the kernel returns negative error numbers that libc then turns into -1 and sets errno. Thus the correct manpage is errno(3).

▲eqvinox 3 hours ago

OpenBSD up to 5.9 had errno(2) symlinked to intro(2), describing error codes:

https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=errno&apropos=0&se...

Also, your statements about the kernel and libc are OS specific.

▲WhyNotHugo 1 hour ago

Why does libc do this instead of simply returning that same negative number?

▲matheusmoreira 21 minutes ago

Legacy. It's always been this way and it can't change without breaking everything.

▲rcxdude 1 hour ago

POSIX, basically. It was already a convention by the time linux/glibc implemented it.

▲ 3 hours ago

▲chuckadams 5 hours ago

    #define ETERNITY 999 /* stuck in thinking loop */

▲OhMeadhbh 3 hours ago

As a long time emacs user, I appreciated the inclusion of EMACS as an error code. When I moved from TECO to gnu emacs in to 80s, elisp was an advance. Now I have a perpetual todo item... "rewrite emacs in fennel or janet or even minimalisp."

"What was deluxe is now debris..."

▲amelius 7 hours ago

> #define EAI 201 /* hallucination */

If only AI threw an error when it hallucinates.

▲yard2010 6 hours ago

Nah it would just hallucinate this error all the time

▲Findecanor 6 hours ago

It would hallucinate error codes that don't exist.

▲SoftTalker 1 hour ago

Missed one...

   EHAL    231    /* I'm sorry Dave, I cannot do that */

▲chme 4 hours ago

    #define EPROCRASTINATE 245 /* exhausted all output tokens with reasoning */

▲JSR_FDED 5 hours ago

#define EKNOWBETTER 231 # ignoring prompt

▲cold_harbor 4 hours ago

#define ESYCOPHANT 200 /* user asserted 2+2=5; model concurred */

▲andai 6 hours ago

I often ran into an error where multimodal models would refuse to operate in transcription mode due to some system prompt.

▲cluckindan 4 hours ago

207 is a bald move

▲cat-whisperer 6 hours ago

what about ETHOS : Error it's Mythos? lol!

▲tetha 5 hours ago

ETHOS is generally reserved for a certain type of error involving slab memory and complex logic though.

Let's hope that reference is not too obscure...