Ubuntu Manpage: gencat - generate a formatted message catalog

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  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, 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>. 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
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 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.

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 .