.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved .TH "GENCAT" 1P 2003 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual" .\" gencat .SH PROLOG This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux. .SH NAME gencat \- generate a formatted message catalog .SH SYNOPSIS .LP \fBgencat\fP \fIcatfile msgfile\fP\fB... \fP .SH DESCRIPTION .LP The \fIgencat\fP utility shall merge the message text source file \fImsgfile\fP into a formatted message catalog \fIcatfile\fP. The file \fIcatfile\fP shall be created if it does not already exist. If \fIcatfile\fP does exist, its messages shall be included in the new \fIcatfile\fP. If set and message numbers collide, the new message text defined in \fImsgfile\fP shall replace the old message text currently contained in \fIcatfile\fP. .SH OPTIONS .LP None. .SH OPERANDS .LP The following operands shall be supported: .TP 7 \fIcatfile\fP A pathname of the formatted message catalog. If \fB'-'\fP is specified, standard output shall be used. The format of the message catalog produced is unspecified. .TP 7 \fImsgfile\fP A pathname of a message text source file. If \fB'-'\fP is specified for an instance of \fImsgfile\fP, standard input shall be used. The format of message text source files is defined in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section. .sp .SH STDIN .LP The standard input shall not be used unless a \fImsgfile\fP operand is specified as \fB'-'\fP . .SH INPUT FILES .LP The input files shall be text files. .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES .LP The following environment variables shall affect the execution of \fIgencat\fP: .TP 7 \fILANG\fP Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.) .TP 7 \fILC_ALL\fP If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables. .TP 7 \fILC_CTYPE\fP Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files). .TP 7 \fILC_MESSAGES\fP Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. .TP 7 \fINLSPATH\fP Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of \fILC_MESSAGES \&.\fP .sp .SH ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS .LP Default. .SH STDOUT .LP The standard output shall not be used unless the \fIcatfile\fP operand is specified as \fB'-'\fP . .SH STDERR .LP The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages. .SH OUTPUT FILES .LP None. .SH EXTENDED DESCRIPTION .LP The content of a message text file shall be in the format defined as follows. Note that the fields of a message text source line are separated by a single . Any other s are considered to be part of the subsequent field. .TP 7 \fB$set\ \fP \fIn\ comment\fP .sp This line specifies the set identifier of the following messages until the next \fB$set\fP or end-of-file appears. The \fIn\fP denotes the set identifier, which is defined as a number in the range [1, {NL_SETMAX}] (see the \fI\fP header defined in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001). The application shall ensure that set identifiers are presented in ascending order within a single source file, but need not be contiguous. Any string following the set identifier shall be treated as a comment. If no \fB$set\fP directive is specified in a message text source file, all messages shall be located in an implementation-defined default message set NL_SETD (see the \fI\fP header defined in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001). .TP 7 \fB$delset\ \fP \fIn\ comment\fP .sp This line deletes message set \fIn\fP from an existing message catalog. The \fIn\fP denotes the set number [1, {NL_SETMAX}]. Any string following the set number shall be treated as a comment. .TP 7 \fB$\ \fP \fIcomment\fP A line beginning with \fB'$'\fP followed by a shall be treated as a comment. .TP 7 \fIm\ message-text\fP .sp The \fIm\fP denotes the message identifier, which is defined as a number in the range [1, {NL_MSGMAX}] (see the \fI\fP header). The \fImessage-text\fP shall be stored in the message catalog with the set identifier specified by the last \fB$set\fP directive, and with message identifier \fIm\fP. If the \fImessage-text\fP is empty, and a field separator is present, an empty string shall be stored in the message catalog. If a message source line has a message number, but neither a field separator nor \fImessage-text\fP, the existing message with that number (if any) shall be deleted from the catalog. The application shall ensure that message identifiers are in ascending order within a single set, but need not be contiguous. The application shall ensure that the length of \fImessage-text\fP is in the range [0, {NL_TEXTMAX}] (see the \fI\fP header). .TP 7 \fB$quote\ \fP \fIn\fP This line specifies an optional quote character \fIc\fP, which can be used to surround \fImessage-text\fP so that trailing spaces or null (empty) messages are visible in a message source line. By default, or if an empty \fB$quote\fP directive is supplied, no quoting of \fImessage-text\fP shall be recognized. .sp .LP Empty lines in a message text source file shall be ignored. The effects of lines starting with any character other than those defined above are implementation-defined. .LP Text strings can contain the special characters and escape sequences defined in the following table: .TS C center; l l l. \fBDescription\fP \fBSymbol\fP \fBSequence\fP NL(LF) \\n Horizontal-tab HT \\t VT \\v BS \\b CR \\r FF \\f Backslash \fB\\\fP \\\\ Bit pattern \fBddd\fP \\ddd .TE .LP The escape sequence \fB"\\ddd"\fP consists of backslash followed by one, two, or three octal digits, which shall be taken to specify the value of the desired character. If the character following a backslash is not one of those specified, the backslash shall be ignored. .LP Backslash ( \fB'\\'\fP ) followed by a is also used to continue a string on the following line. Thus, the following two lines describe a single message string: .sp .RS .nf \fB1 This line continues \\ to the next line \fP .fi .RE .LP which shall be equivalent to: .sp .RS .nf \fB1 This line continues to the next line \fP .fi .RE .SH EXIT STATUS .LP The following exit values shall be returned: .TP 7 \ 0 Successful completion. .TP 7 >0 An error occurred. .sp .SH CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS .LP Default. .LP \fIThe following sections are informative.\fP .SH APPLICATION USAGE .LP Message catalogs produced by \fIgencat\fP are binary encoded, meaning that their portability cannot be guaranteed between different types of machine. Thus, just as C programs need to be recompiled for each type of machine, so message catalogs must be recreated via \fIgencat\fP. .SH EXAMPLES .LP None. .SH RATIONALE .LP None. .SH FUTURE DIRECTIONS .LP None. .SH SEE ALSO .LP \fIiconv\fP(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, \fI\fP, \fI\fP .SH COPYRIGHT Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .