errno 38 (EL2NSYNC): meaning and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: Level 2 not synchronized

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_HANDLE_EOF	Win32 error	Windows
KERN_LOCK_SET_DESTROYED	Kern return	Mac
ippStsSymKernelExpected	Intel Ipp Status	Any
ENOSYS	errno	Linux
ENOTSOCK	errno	Mac
ENAMETOOLONG	errno	Windows
CDFS_FILE_SYSTEM	BugCheck Code	Windows

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ECHRNG	EL3HLT

EL2NSYNC

“Not synchronized” is part of a legacy level vocabulary

EL2NSYNC is errno 38 in Solaris and illumos. Oracle lists the condition as Level 2 not synchronized but does not identify a present-day syscall that returns it. POSIX does not standardize this errno.

The wording should not be expanded into NTP, PTP, filesystem timestamp, or thread synchronization advice. The adjacent historical names EL2HLT, EL3HLT, and EL3RST show that “level” and “synchronized” belong to an older layered state vocabulary retained in the ABI.

Evidence to collect

Find the original component that selected errno 38 and determine how that component defines “level 2”.
Preserve the original symbolic code in logs if a compatibility layer exposes it; converting it to “time synchronization failed” is unsupported.
Check the source platform before decoding a bare numeric errno received from another process or machine.

References

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