NAME

       bindtextdomain - set directory containing message catalogs

SYNOPSIS

       #include <libintl.h>

       char * bindtextdomain (const char * domainname, const char * dirname);

DESCRIPTION

       The  bindtextdomain  function  sets the base directory of the hierarchy containing message catalogs for a
       given message domain.

       A message domain is a set of translatable msgid messages. Usually, every software  package  has  its  own
       message domain. The need for calling bindtextdomain arises because packages are not always installed with
       the same prefix as the <libintl.h> header and the libc/libintl libraries.

       Message catalogs will be expected at the pathnames dirname/locale/category/domainname.mo, where locale is
       a locale name and category is a locale facet such as LC_MESSAGES.

       domainname must be a non-empty string.

       If  dirname is not NULL, the base directory for message catalogs belonging to domain domainname is set to
       dirname. The function makes copies of the argument strings as needed. If the program wishes to  call  the
       chdir  function,  it is important that dirname be an absolute pathname; otherwise it cannot be guaranteed
       that the message catalogs will be found.

       If dirname is NULL, the function returns the previously set base directory for domain domainname.

RETURN VALUE

       If successful, the bindtextdomain function returns the current  base  directory  for  domain  domainname,
       after possibly changing it. The resulting string is valid until the next bindtextdomain call for the same
       domainname and must not be modified or freed. If a memory allocation failure occurs,  it  sets  errno  to
       ENOMEM and returns NULL.

ERRORS

       The following error can occur, among others:

       ENOMEM Not enough memory available.

BUGS

       The return type ought to be const char *, but is char * to avoid warnings in C code predating ANSI C.

SEE ALSO

       gettext(3),   dgettext(3),   dcgettext(3),   ngettext(3),   dngettext(3),  dcngettext(3),  textdomain(3),
       realpath(3)