NAME

       catgets - get message from a message catalog

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <nl_types.h>

       char *catgets(nl_catd catalog, int set_number, int message_number,
                     const char *message);

DESCRIPTION

       catgets()  reads  the  message message_number, in set set_number, from the message catalog
       identified by catalog, where catalog is a catalog descriptor returned from an earlier call
       to  catopen(3).   The  fourth  argument, message, points to a default message string which
       will be returned  by  catgets()  if  the  identified  message  catalog  is  not  currently
       available.   The message-text is contained in an internal buffer area and should be copied
       by the application if it is to  be  saved  or  modified.   The  return  string  is  always
       terminated with a null byte ('\0').

RETURN VALUE

       On  success,  catgets()  returns a pointer to an internal buffer area containing the null-
       terminated message string.  On failure, catgets() returns the value message.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                                                      │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │catgets()                                                      │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY

       POSIX.1-2001.

       The catgets() function is available only in libc.so.4.4.4c and above.

       The Jan 1987 X/Open Portability Guide specifies a more subtle  error  return:  message  is
       returned  if  the  message  catalog  specified by catalog is not available, while an empty
       string is returned when the  message  catalog  is  available  but  does  not  contain  the
       specified  message.   These  two  possible  error returns seem to be discarded in SUSv2 in
       favor of always returning message.

SEE ALSO

       catopen(3), setlocale(3)