new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/xprintf.c
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/* printf wrappers that fail immediately for non-file-related errors
+   Copyright (C) 2007 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 3 of the License, 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, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.  */
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
+# include <config.h>
+#endif
+
+#include "xprintf.h"
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <stdarg.h>
+
+#include "error.h"
+#include "exitfail.h"
+#include "gettext.h"
+
+/* written by Jim Meyering */
+
+/* Just like printf, but call error if it fails for any reason
+   for which printf does not set the stream error indicator.  */
+int
+xprintf (char const *restrict format, ...)
+{
+  va_list args;
+  va_start (args, format);
+  int err = vprintf (format, args);
+  if (err && (errno == EILSEQ || errno == EINVAL || errno == ENOMEM))
+    error (exit_failure, errno, gettext ("write error"));
+
+  return err;
+}
+
+/* Just like fprintf, but call error if it fails for any reason
+   for which printf does not set the stream error indicator.  */
+int
+xfprintf (FILE *restrict stream, char const *restrict format, ...)
+{
+  va_list args;
+  va_start (args, format);
+  int err = vfprintf (stream, format, args);
+  if (err && (errno == EILSEQ || errno == EINVAL || errno == ENOMEM))
+    error (exit_failure, errno, gettext ("write error"));
+
+  return err;
+}