GENCAT(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual GENCAT(1P)
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 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 mes-
sage 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 vari-
ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol-
ume of POSIX.1-2008, 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> 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 mes-
sages 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 applica-
tion 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 cat-
alog. The n denotes the set number [1, {NL_SETMAX}]. Any
string following the set number shall be treated as a com-
ment.
$ 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 cat-
alog 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 appli-
cation 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 Electri-
cal 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 during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker-
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 GENCAT(1P)