////
Copyright 2003-2017 Beman Dawes
Copyright 2018 Peter Dimov

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.

See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt
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[#introduction]
# Introduction
:idprefix: intro_

Error conditions originating from the operating system or other low-level
application program interfaces (API's) are typically reported via an integer
representing an error code. When these low-level API calls are wrapped in
portable code, such as in a portable library, some users want to deal with the
error codes in portable ways. Other users need to get at the system specific
error codes, so they can deal with system specific needs. The Boost System
library provides simple, light-weight `error_code` objects that encapsulate
system-specific error code values, yet also provide access to more abstract
and portable error conditions via `error_condition` objects.

Because `error_code` objects can represent errors from sources other than the
operating system, including user-defined sources, each `error_code` and
`error_condition` has an associated `error_category`.

An exception class, `system_error`, is provided. Derived from
`std::runtime_error`, it captures the underlying `error_code` for the problem
causing the exception so that this important information is not lost.

While exceptions are the preferred {cpp} default error code reporting
mechanism, users of libraries dependent on low-level API's often need overloads
reporting error conditions via error code arguments and/or return values rather
than via throwing exceptions. Otherwise, when errors are not exceptional
occurrences and must be dealt with as they arise, programs become littered with
try/catch blocks, unreadable, and inefficient. The Boost System library
supports both error reporting by exception and by error code.

In addition to portable errors codes and conditions supported by the
`error_code.hpp` header, system-specific headers support the Cygwin, Linux,
and Windows platforms. These headers are effectively no-ops if included for
platforms other than their intended target.

Boost.System is part of the {cpp}11 Standard Library.
A number of changes, particularly to names, were made by the C++ committee
during standardization. The Boost implementation has been tracking those changes.
See <<#ref_deprecated_names,Deprecated Names>> for synonyms provided to prevent
breakage of existing user code.
