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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 message 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 POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization 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 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 separated by a single <blank> character. Any other <blank> characters 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
POSIX.1‐2008). 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 POSIX.1‐2008).
$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 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 <limits.h> header).
$quote n This line specifies an optional quote character c, which can be used to surround message-text
so that trailing <space> characters 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.
A <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 POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, <limits.h>, <nl_types.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
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https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .