errno 88 (EILSEQ): meaning and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: Solaris rejected a byte sequence that is invalid for the expected character encoding.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_NET_WRITE_FAULT	Win32 error	Windows
ENOTSOCK	errno	Linux
EBADMACHO	errno	Mac
FTDISK_INTERNAL_ERROR	BugCheck Code	Windows
VOLMGRX_INTERNAL_ERROR	BugCheck Code	Windows

EILSEQ

Character conversion and multibyte input

On Solaris, EILSEQ is errno value 88. The base message is Illegal byte sequence., but the useful diagnostic context is narrower than the short message: solaris rejected a byte sequence that is invalid for the expected character encoding.

Use the Solaris-specific errno table first, then compare with POSIX only for portable behavior. Some Solaris values share names with other UNIX systems but have different numbers or more specific historical meanings.

What to check

Check the active locale and codeset used by the conversion function.
Preserve the original bytes when logging; converting them again can hide the offending sequence.
Distinguish invalid byte sequences from range errors such as EOVERFLOW.

References

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