There are two topics covered here: 1) If a logFile is set, passt's behavior has been to send all error messages there, and *not* to stderr. This makes it difficult for another program that is exec'ing passt (and setting it to log to a file) to report useful error messages when passt fails - everything after the point that the logfile is opened is sent only to the logfile. The first patch makes a simple change to the logging functions that uses the value of the system logmask to decide if it should force writing messages to stderr even when a logfile has been specified. Change from "v2": I'm using Stefano's suggestion of "abusing" logmask, rather than adding a static bool to keep track. Change from "v3": tweak a commend to Stefano's liking. 2) All the rest of the patches eliminate use of the blanket usage() function when a commandline error is encountered (and add in specific/details error messages when previously usage() was all that was logged), and replace calls to err() followed by exit() with a single call to the new function die(). Change from "v2": I changed the name of the "log and exit" function from "errexit()" to "die()" at the suggestion of Dave Gibson (Stefano concurred). Although it seems a bit more violent, it does make moot many/most of Stefano's nits about needing to split lines to eliminate80 characters (I did address all the rest of the things he pointedout, though) NB: Yes, this says it is v3, and the previous version I sent was v2, and there *was no v1* - this is because I didn't realize that git-publish is automatically incrementing the version number every time I run it, and I had done a test-drive sending the patches to my personal address prior to sending them to the list - *that* was v1. Laine Stump (9): log to stderr until process is daemonized, even if a log file is set add die() to log an error message and exit with a single call eliminate most calls to usage() in conf() make conf_ports() exit immediately after logging error make conf_pasta_ns() exit immediately after logging error make conf_ugid() exit immediately after logging error make conf_netns_opt() exit immediately after logging error log a detailed error (not usage()) when there are extra non-option arguments convert all remaining err() followed by exit() to die() conf.c | 468 ++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------------- isolation.c | 67 +++----- log.c | 24 +-- log.h | 1 + netlink.c | 3 +- passt.c | 29 ++-- pasta.c | 20 +-- tap.c | 30 ++-- 8 files changed, 244 insertions(+), 398 deletions(-) -- 2.39.1