GENCAT(P) POSIX Programmer’s Manual GENCAT(P)
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 message catalog catfile. The file catfile shall be
created if it does not already exist. If catfile does exist, its mes-
sages 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 speci-
fied, 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 speci-
fied as ’-’ .
INPUT FILES
The input files shall be text files.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of gen-
cat:
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, Internationalization Vari-
ables 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 internationalization 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 arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
and contents of diagnostic 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 sepa-
rated 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 Def-
initions 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 com-
ment. 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 cata-
log. 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 num-
ber 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 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 message-text,
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 message-text is in the range [0, {NL_TEXTMAX}] (see the <lim-
its.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 message 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 following 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 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.
Backslash ( ’\’ ) followed by a <newline> is also used to continue a
string on the following 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, <lim-
its.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 original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 GENCAT(P)
