Normally the facility message file for each Starlink library will be installed in /star/help when the library is installed. It is recommended that the message file and error include files are included in the source tar file rather than building them from the MESSGEN source file during the make build. This will avoid an unnecessary dependency.
The internal EMS source file ems1_fcerr.c contains C code for obtaining the message given the status value – this may be copied by other systems requiring to do the same job on UNIX platforms but note that the system is not fully portable and Starlink reserve the right to alter it. See SSN/4 (Appendix on Portability) for a description of how the routine operates on UNIX.