hi,

> So, why do we have this list *and* the message catalog??

sys_errlist = __errlist14 (and sys_nerr)
is the array of string (and its length)
that holds default message string. it may be used
when can't get localized message from libc.cat.

src/lib/libc/string/__strerrno.c
(snip)
76         if (errnum < (unsigned int) sys_nerr) {
                                       ^^^^^^^^ 
77 #ifdef NLS
78                 (void)strlcpy(buf, catgets(catd, 1, (int)errnum,
79                     sys_errlist[errnum]), buflen);
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^
80 #else
81                 return(sys_errlist[errnum]);
82 #endif
83         } else {
(snip)


very truly yours.
-- 
Takehiko NOZAKI <tnozaki@NetBSD.ORG>