GENCAT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual GENCAT(1P)

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.

NAME
gencat - generate a formatted message catalog

SYNOPSIS
gencat catfile msgfile...

DESCRIPTION
The gencat utility shall merge the message text source file msgfile into a formatted mes-
sage catalog catfile. The file catfile shall be created if it does not already exist. If
catfile does exist, its messages shall be included in the new catfile. If set and message
numbers collide, the new message text defined in msgfile shall replace the old message
text currently contained in catfile.

OPTIONS
None.

OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:

catfile
A pathname of the formatted message catalog. If '-' is specified, standard output
shall be used. The format of the message catalog produced is unspecified.

msgfile
A pathname of a message text source file. If '-' is specified for an instance of
msgfile, standard input shall be used. The format of message text source files is
defined in the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.

STDIN
The standard input shall not be used unless a msgfile operand is specified as '-' .

INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of gencat:

LANG 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, Inter-
nationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other interna-
tionalization variables.

LC_CTYPE
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 argu-
ments and input files).

LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diag-
nostic messages written to standard error.

NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.

STDOUT
The standard output shall not be used unless the catfile operand is specified as '-' .

STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
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 <blank>. Any other
<blank>s are considered to be part of the subsequent field.

$set n comment

This line specifies the set identifier of the following messages until the next
$set or end-of-file appears. The n denotes the set identifier, which is defined as
a number in the range [1, {NL_SETMAX}] (see the <limits.h> 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 $set 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 <nl_types.h> header defined in the Base Definitions volume of
IEEE Std 1003.1-2001).

$delset n comment

This line deletes message set n from an existing message catalog. The n denotes
the set number [1, {NL_SETMAX}]. Any string following the set number shall be
treated as a comment.

$ comment
A line beginning with '$' followed by a <blank> shall be treated as a comment.

m message-text

The m denotes the message identifier, which is defined as a number in the range [1,
{NL_MSGMAX}] (see the <limits.h> header). The message-text shall be stored in the
message catalog with the set identifier specified by the last $set directive, and
with message identifier m. If the message-text is empty, and a <blank> field sepa-
rator is present, an empty string shall be stored in the message catalog. If a mes-
sage source line has a message number, but neither a field separator nor message-
text, the existing message with that number (if any) shall be deleted from the cat-
alog. 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 message-text is in the range [0, {NL_TEXTMAX}] (see the <limits.h>
header).

$quote n
This line specifies an optional quote character c, which can be used to surround
message-text so that trailing spaces or null (empty) messages are visible in a mes-
sage source line. By default, or if an empty $quote directive is supplied, no
quoting of message-text shall be recognized.

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.

Text strings can contain the special characters and escape sequences defined in the fol-
lowing table:

Description Symbol Sequence
<newline> NL(LF) \n
Horizontal-tab HT \t
<vertical-tab> VT \v
<backspace> BS \b
<carriage-return> CR \r
<form-feed> FF \f
Backslash \ \\
Bit pattern ddd \ddd

The escape sequence "\ddd" consists of backslash followed by one, two, or three octal dig-
its, 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.

Backslash ( '\' ) followed by a <newline> is also used to continue a string on the follow-
ing line. Thus, the following two lines describe a single message string:

1 This line continues \
to the next line

which shall be equivalent to:

1 This line continues to the next line

EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:

0 Successful completion.

>0 An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.

The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
Message catalogs produced by gencat 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 gencat.

EXAMPLES
None.

RATIONALE
None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.

SEE ALSO
iconv(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <limits.h>, <nl_types.h>

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 orig-
inal Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group 2003 GENCAT(1P)

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