GENCAT(1)                  POSIX Programmer's Manual                 GENCAT(1)



PROLOG
       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The OS
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
       OS manual page for details of OS behavior), or the interface may not be
       implemented on OS.

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 POSIX.1-2017, 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> 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
                 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 POSIX.1-2017). 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 POSIX.1-2017).

       $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 <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.1-2017, Chapter _8, Environment
       Variables, <limits.h>, <nl_types.h>

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology --
       Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 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 .

       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.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                  2017                            GENCAT(1)
