gencat

- generate a formatted message catalog

Synopsis

gencat catfile msgfile...

Description

The gencat command merges the message text source file(s) msgfile into a formatted message database catfile. The database catfile is created if it does not already exist. If catfile does exist, its messages are included in the new catfile. If set and message numbers collide, the new message-text defined in msgfile replaces the old message text currently contained in catfile. The message text source file (or set of files) input to gencat can contain either set and message numbers or simply message numbers, in which case the set NL_SETD (see nl_types.h(3HEAD)) is assumed.

Message Text Source File Format

The format of a message text source file is defined as follows. Note that the fields of a message text source line are separated by a single ASCII space or tab character. Any other ASCII spaces or tabs are considered as part of the subsequent field.

$set n comment

Where n specifies the set identifier of the following messages until the next $set, $delset, or end-of-file appears. n must be a number in the range (1–{NL_SETMAX}). Set identifiers within a single source file need not be contiguous. Any string following the set identifier is treated as a comment. If no $set directive is specified in a message text source file, all messages are located in the default message set NL_SETD.

$delset n comment

Deletes message set n from an existing message catalog. Any string following the set number is treated as a comment. (Note: if n is not a valid set it is ignored.)

$comment

A line beginning with a dollar symbol $ followed by an ASCII space or tab character is treated as a comment.

m message-text

The m denotes the message identifier, a number in the range (1-{NL_MSGMAX}). The message-text is 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 an ASCII space or tab field separator is present, an empty string is 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) is deleted from the catalog. Message identifiers need not be contiguous. The length of message-text must be in the range (0–{NL_TEXTMAX}).

$quote c

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 will be recognized.

Empty lines in a message text source file are ignored.

Text strings can contain the special characters and escape sequences defined in the following table:

The escape sequence \ddd consists of backslash followed by 1, 2 or 3 octal digits, which are taken to specify the value of the desired character. If the character following a backslash is not one of those specified, the backslash is ignored.

Backslash followed by an ASCII newline character 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 is equivalent to:

    1 This line continues to the next line

Operands

The following operands are supported:

catfile

A path name of the formatted message catalog. If - is specified, standard output is used.

msgfile

A path name of a message text source file. If - is specified for an instance of msgfile, standard input is used. The format of message text source files is defined in Message Text Source File Format.

Environment Variables

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of gencat: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

mkmsgs(1), catgets(3C), catopen(3C), gettxt(3C), nl_types.h(3HEAD), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)