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EISNAM
EISNAM: Linux legacy errno
EISNAM (errno 3) reports that an operation expecting an ordinary file encountered a XENIX named-type object. These names come from historical System V/XENIX compatibility interfaces; on modern Linux they usually point to a driver, STREAMS-compatibility layer, or legacy IPC contract rather than a general filesystem error.
Evidence to capture
Record path, inode/file type, mount/filesystem, and failing system call. Save errno immediately after the failing call, together with its return value, because later library or logging calls can overwrite thread-local error state.
Focused test
stat the same path and compare the call against a known regular file on the same filesystem. Keep the process, device/endpoint and deployed driver version fixed so the comparison changes only the suspected boundary.
Correction
use the object type required by the operation or select the correct path. If the interface is provided by a compatibility driver, verify its documented ABI and object lifetime instead of assuming that a numerically similar errno from another UNIX has the same contract.
Verification
Repeat the original system call and confirm it passes the former EISNAM boundary with the same object identity. If another errno appears, preserve it as a separate result from the next failing operation.
Technical references
- Linux man-pages: errno(3)
- Linux kernel: asm-generic errno definitions
- GNU C Library: error codes
- illumos: STREAMS programming documentation
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