--- a/lib/ChangeLog
+++ b/lib/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2006-08-08  Eric Blake  <ebb9@byu.net>
+
+	* verror.h, verror.c: New files.
+
 2006-08-07  Bruno Haible  <bruno@clisp.org>
 
 	* allocsa.h (sa_alignof) [_AIX]: Also consider 'long long' in newer

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/verror.c
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/* va_list error handler for noninteractive utilities
+   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+   any later version.
+
+   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+   GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
+   with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+   Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.  */
+
+/* Written by Eric Blake.  */
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+# include <config.h>
+#endif
+
+#include "verror.h"
+#include "xvasprintf.h"
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <stdarg.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+#if ENABLE_NLS
+# include "gettext.h"
+#endif
+
+#ifndef _
+# define _(String) String
+#endif
+
+/* Print a message with `vfprintf (stderr, FORMAT, ARGS)';
+   if ERRNUM is nonzero, follow it with ": " and strerror (ERRNUM).
+   If STATUS is nonzero, terminate the program with `exit (STATUS)'.
+   Use the globals error_print_progname and error_message_count similarly
+   to error().  */
+void
+verror (int status, int errnum, const char *format, va_list args)
+{
+  verror_at_line (status, errnum, NULL, 0, format, args);
+}
+
+/* Print a message with `vfprintf (stderr, FORMAT, ARGS)';
+   if ERRNUM is nonzero, follow it with ": " and strerror (ERRNUM).
+   If STATUS is nonzero, terminate the program with `exit (STATUS)'.
+   If FNAME is not NULL, prepend the message with `FNAME:LINENO:'.
+   Use the globals error_print_progname, error_message_count, and
+   error_one_per_line similarly to error_at_line().  */
+void
+verror_at_line (int status, int errnum, const char *file,
+                unsigned int line_number, const char *format, va_list args)
+{
+  char *message = xvasprintf (format, args);
+  if (message)
+    error_at_line (status, errnum, file, line_number, "%s", message);
+  else
+    {
+      /* EOVERFLOW, EINVAL, and EILSEQ from xvasprintf are signs of
+         serious programmer errors.  */
+      error (0, errno, _("unable to display error message"));
+      abort ();
+    }
+  free (message);
+}

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/verror.h
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+/* Declaration for va_list error-reporting function
+   Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+   the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+   any later version.
+
+   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+   GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
+   with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+   Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.  */
+
+#ifndef _VERROR_H
+#define _VERROR_H 1
+
+#include "error.h"
+#include <stdarg.h>
+
+#ifdef	__cplusplus
+extern "C" {
+#endif
+
+/* Print a message with `vfprintf (stderr, FORMAT, ARGS)';
+   if ERRNUM is nonzero, follow it with ": " and strerror (ERRNUM).
+   If STATUS is nonzero, terminate the program with `exit (STATUS)'.
+   Use the globals error_print_progname and error_message_count similarly
+   to error().  */
+
+extern void verror (int __status, int __errnum, const char *__format,
+                    va_list __args)
+     __attribute__ ((__format__ (__printf__, 3, 0)));
+
+/* Print a message with `vfprintf (stderr, FORMAT, ARGS)';
+   if ERRNUM is nonzero, follow it with ": " and strerror (ERRNUM).
+   If STATUS is nonzero, terminate the program with `exit (STATUS)'.
+   If FNAME is not NULL, prepend the message with `FNAME:LINENO:'.
+   Use the globals error_print_progname, error_message_count, and
+   error_one_per_line similarly to error_at_line().  */
+
+extern void verror_at_line (int __status, int __errnum, const char *__fname,
+                            unsigned int __lineno, const char *__format,
+                            va_list __args)
+     __attribute__ ((__format__ (__printf__, 5, 0)));
+
+#ifdef	__cplusplus
+}
+#endif
+
+#endif /* verror.h */