std::cerr, std::wcerr

From cppreference.com

Defined in header `<iostream>`

extern std::ostream cerr;	(1)

extern std::wostream wcerr;	(2)

The global objects std::cerr and std::wcerr control output to a stream buffer of implementation-defined type (derived from std::streambuf and std::wstreambuf, respectively), associated with the standard C error output stream stderr.

These objects are guaranteed to be constructed before the first constructor of a static object is called and they are guaranteed to outlive the last destructor of a static object, so that it is always possible to write to std::cerr in user code.

Unless sync_with_stdio(false) has been issued, it is safe to concurrently access these objects from multiple threads for both formatted and unformatted output.

Once initialized, (std::cerr.flags() & unitbuf) != 0 (same for wcerr) meaning that any output sent to these stream objects is immediately flushed to the OS (via std::basic_ostream::sentry's destructor).

In addition, std::cerr.tie() returns &std::cout (same for wcerr and wcout), meaning that any output operation on std::cerr first executes std::cout.flush() (via std::basic_ostream::sentry's constructor) (since C++11)

[edit] Example

output to stderr via cerr flushes out the pending output on cout, while output to stderr via clog does not

run this code

#include <thread>
#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
void f()
{
    std::cout << "Output from thread...";
    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(2));
    std::cout << "...thread calls flush()" << std::endl;
}
 
int main()
{
    std::thread t1(f);
    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));
    std::clog << "This output from main is not tie()'d to cout\n";
    std::cerr << "This output is tie()'d to cout\n";
    t1.join();
}

Output:

This output from main is not tie()'d to cout
Output from thread...This output is tie()'d to cout
...thread calls flush()

[edit] See also


Init	initializes standard stream objects (public member class of `std::ios_base`)

clog wclog	writes to the standard C error stream stderr (global object)

cout wcout	writes to the standard C output stream stdout (global object)

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