Generating Error Messages

The #error directive makes the preprocessor issue an error message, regardless of any actual formal error. Its syntax is:

#error [text]

If the optional text is present, it is included in the preprocessor's error message. The compiler then stops processing the source file and exits as it would on encountering a fatal error. The text can be any sequence of preprocessor tokens. Any macros contained in it are not expanded. It is a good idea to use a string literal here to avoid problems with punctuation characters, such as single quotation marks.

The following example tests whether the standard macro _ _STDC_ _ is defined, and generates an error message if it is not:

#ifndef _ _STDC_ _

#error "This compiler does not conform to the ANSI C standard."

#endif

Source: C in a Nutshell - O'Reilly Media