Man Pages

---

Back to Software Index  Manpage Top Level

Name

Synopsis

nl_catd catopen(const char *name, int oflag);

int catclose(nl_catd catd);

MT-Level

Description

catopen() opens a message catalog and returns a message catalog descriptor. name specifies the name of the message catalog to be opened. If name contains a ‘/’, then name specifies a complete pathname for the message catalog; otherwise, the environment variable NLSPATH is used and /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES must exist. If NLSPATH does not exist in the environment, or if a message catalog cannot be opened in any of the paths specified by NLSPATH , then the default path /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES is used. In the "C locale, catopen() will always succeed without checking the default search path.

The names of message catalogs and their location in the filesystem can vary from one system to another. Individual applications can choose to name or locate message catalogs according to their own special needs. A mechanism is therefore required to specify where the catalog resides.

The NLSPATH variable provides both the location of message catalogs, in the form of a search path, and the naming conventions associated with message catalog files. For example:

NLSPATH=/nlslib/%L/%N.cat:/nlslib/%N/%L

The metacharacter % introduces a substitution field, where %L substitutes the current setting of either the LANG environment variable, if the value of oflag is 0, or the LC_MESSAGES category, if the value of oflag is NL_CAT_LOCALE , and %N substitutes the value of the name parameter passed to catopen(). Thus, in the above example, catopen() will search in /nlslib/$LANG /name.cat, if oflag is 0, or in /nlslib/{LC_MESSAGES} /name.cat, if oflag is NL_CAT_LOCALE .

NLSPATH will normally be set up on a system wide basis (in /etc/profile) and thus makes the location and naming conventions associated with message catalogs transparent to both programs and users.

The full set of metacharacters is:

%N

The value of the name parameter passed to catopen().

%L

The value of LANG or LC_MESSAGES .

%l

The value of the language element of LANG or LC_MESSAGES .

%t

The value of the territory element of LANG or LC_MESSAGES .

%c

The value of the codeset element of LANG or LC_MESSAGES .

%%

A single %.

The LANG environment variable provides the ability to specify the user’s requirements for native languages, local customs and character set, as an ASCII string in the form

LANG =language[_territory[.codeset]]

A user who speaks German as it is spoken in Austria and has a terminal which operates in ISO 8859/1 codeset, would want the setting of the LANG variable to be

LANG =De_A.88591

With this setting it should be possible for that user to find any relevant catalogs should they exist.

Should the LANG variable not be set, the value of LC_MESSAGES as returned by setlocale() is used. If this is NULL, the default path as defined in nl_types() is used.

If the value of oflag argument is 0, the LANG environment variable is used to locate the catalogue without regard to the LC_MESSAGES category. If the oflag argument is NL_CAT_LOCALE , the LC_MESSAGES category is used to locate the message catalogue.

catclose() closes the message catalog identified by catd.

Return Values

catclose() returns 0 if successful, otherwise -1.

See Also

Notes

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• MT-Level
• Description
• Return Values
• See Also
• Notes