opensolaris man page for assert

assert(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 						assert(3C)

NAME
       assert - verify program assertion

SYNOPSIS
       #include <assert.h>

       void assert(int expression);

DESCRIPTION
       The assert() macro inserts diagnostics into applications. When executed, if expression is FALSE (zero), assert() prints the error message

	 Assertion failed: expression, file xyz, line nnn

       on  the	standard  error  output and aborts. In the error message, xyz is the name of the source file and nnn the source line number of the
       assert() statement. These are respectively the values of the preprocessor macros __FILE__ and __LINE__.

       Since assert() is implemented as a macro, the expression may not contain any string literals.

       Compiling with the preprocessor option -DNDEBUG (see cc(1B)), or with the preprocessor  control	statement  #define  NDEBUG  ahead  of  the
       #include <assert.h> statement, will stop assertions from being compiled into the program.

       Messages printed from this function are in the native language specified by the LC_MESSAGES locale category. See setlocale(3C).

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       cc(1B), abort(3C), gettext(3C), setlocale(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.11							    30 Mar 2005 							assert(3C)