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Software Engineering vocabulary · Debugging and Troubleshooting

Error message

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

nounCore term

In software engineering, error message means: Text that a program shows when something goes wrong, saying what failed and sometimes why, for example 'File not found' or 'Connection refused'.

In Turkish: hata mesajı, hata iletisi

How it is used

The first thing to read when debugging and the first thing to share when asking for help: 'What's the exact error message?' Developers often paste error messages into a search engine. Good error messages also tell users what to do next.

Example sentences

  1. Can you send me the full error message instead of a screenshot?

  2. The error message says the port is already in use.

Common collocations

  • get an error message
  • the exact error message
  • clear error message
  • user-friendly error message
  • exceptionAn error event that interrupts the normal flow of a program. The code can catch and handle it, or it can make the program crash.
  • stack traceA report printed when an error happens, listing the chain of function calls that led to it, with file names and line numbers.
  • logA record of events, messages and errors that a program writes while it runs, used later to understand what happened. Also a verb: to log an error.
  • debugTo search for the cause of a problem in a program and remove it, often by running the code step by step and checking values.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Debugging and Troubleshooting

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