DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH PRINT BOOK
 

gencat(CP)


gencat -- generate a formatted message catalogue

Syntax

gencat [ -X ] [catfile | -] [msgfile | -] [ msgfile ... ]

Description

gencat merges the message text source file(s) msgfile into a formatted message catalogue catfile. catfile will be created if it does not already exist. If catfile does already exist its messages will be included in the new catfile. If set and message numbers collide, the new message-text defined in msgfile will replace the old message text currently contained in catfile. gencat will complain about formats not defined in the X/Open Portability Guide.

The following options are recognized by gencat:


-
Use standard output or standard input in the place of (respectively) catfile or msgfile.

-X
Inhibits the check for portability to X/Open.

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 being part of the subsequent field.


$set n comment
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 through {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 will be located in the default message set NL_SETD.

$delset n comment
Delete message set n from an existing message catalog. Any string following the set number is treated as a comment. (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, which is a number in the range 1 through {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 through {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:

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

                       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 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

Exit values

gencat returns ``0'' on success or ``1'' on failure.

Notes

Message catalogues produced by gencat are binary encoded, meaning that their portability cannot be guaranteed between different types of machines. Therefore, just as C programs need to be recompiled for each type of machine, message catalogues must be recreated via gencat.

gencat and dumpmsg are capable of handling message catalogs with variable-length filenames in their file headers. To convert old message catalogs to this format, use the following example as a model:

   dumpmsg old.cat new.msg
   gencat new.cat new.msg

See also

catopen(S), catgets(S), dumpmsg(CP), mar(CP), mkmsgs(CP), nl_types(FP)

Standards conformance

The -X option is specific to this implementation.
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003