--- freem/src/journal.c	2025/03/09 19:14:25	1.4
+++ freem/src/journal.c	2025/04/03 20:48:14	1.5
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- *   $Id: journal.c,v 1.4 2025/03/09 19:14:25 snw Exp $
+ *   $Id: journal.c,v 1.5 2025/04/03 20:48:14 snw Exp $
  *    Implementation of FreeM journaling
  *
  *  
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@
  *   along with FreeM.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
  *
  *   $Log: journal.c,v $
+ *   Revision 1.5  2025/04/03 20:48:14  snw
+ *   Improve daemon error diagnostics and bump to 0.63.0-rc3
+ *
  *   Revision 1.4  2025/03/09 19:14:25  snw
  *   First phase of REUSE compliance and header reformat
  *
@@ -88,7 +91,8 @@ short jnl_init(char *jnlfile, char *host
 
         jnl_desc = open (jnl_file_path, O_CREAT | O_APPEND | O_RDWR, S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
 
-        if (jnl_desc == -1) jnl_panic ("error creating new journal file");
+        snprintf (tmsg, 255, "error creating new journal file '%s' [errno %d: '%s']", jnl_file_path, errno, strerror (errno));
+        if (jnl_desc == -1) jnl_panic (tmsg);
         
         jnl_lock ();