GENCAT(1) BSD General Commands Manual GENCAT(1)NAMEgencat — generates a Native Language Support (NLS) message catalog file
SYNOPSISgencat catfile [msgfile|- ...]
DESCRIPTION
The gencat utility generates a formatted message catalog catfile from
stdin or one or more message source text files msgfile. The file catfile
is created if it does not already exist. If catfile does exist, its mes‐
sages are included in the new catfile. The new message text defined in
msgfile replaces the old message text currently in catfile when the set
and message numbers match.
The generated message catalog contains message strings that will be
retrieved using the catgets(3) library call. These messages are dynami‐
cally loaded by the Native Language Support (NLS) library at run time.
Error messages are grouped into sets, and a program can load a particular
set depending on which type, or language, of messages is desired.
Message Text Source File Format
The message text source files are text files in the format described
below. Note that the fields of a message text source line are separated
by space or tab characters.
$set n comment
Determines the set identifier to be used for all subsequent messages
until the next $set or end-of-file. The n is the set identifier
which is defined as a number in the range [1, NL_SETMAX]. Set iden‐
tifiers 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 mes‐
sages will be located in the default message set NL_SETD.
$delset n comment
Removes message set n from the catalog. The n is a set identifier
in the range [1, NL_SETMAX]. If a message set was created earlier
in the current file, or in a file previously read by the gencat com‐
mand, this directive will remove it. Any string following the set
identifier is treated as a comment.
$ comment
A line beginning with $ followed by a space or tab character is
treated as a comment.
m message-text
A message line consists of a message identifier m in the range [1,
NL_MSGMAX] and the message-text. The message-text is read until the
end of the line or a quote character (if one is specified). The
message-text is stored in the message catalog with the set identi‐
fier specified by the last $set directive, and the message identi‐
fier m. If the message-text is empty and there is a space or tab
character following the message identifier, an empty string is
stored in the message catalog. If no message-text is provided, and
if there is no space or tab character following the message identi‐
fier, the message with the message identifier m in the current set
is removed from the catalog. Message identifiers need not be con‐
tiguous within a single set. The length of message-text must be in
the range [0, NL_TEXTMAX].
$quote c
Sets an optional quote character to be used around the message-text.
The quote character c may be any character other than white space.
If this is specified, then messages must begin and end with the
quote character. This is useful when messages must contain leading
white space. By default no quote character is used. If an empty
$quote directive is specified, then the current quote character is
unset.
Empty lines and leading blanks in a message text source file are ignored.
Any line beginning with any character other than those described above is
ignored as a syntax error.
Text message strings may contain any characters and the following special
characters and escape sequences.
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
A bit pattern, \ddd, consists of a backslash followed by one, two, or
three octal digits representing the value of the character. The current
quote character, if defined, may be escaped with a backslash to generate
the quote character. Any character following the backslash ('\') other
than those specified is ignored.
A backslash at the end of the line continues the message onto the next
line. The following two lines are an example of such a message:
1 This message continues \
on the next line
Producing the following message:
1 This message continues on the next line
EXIT STATUS
The gencat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSOcatclose(3), catgets(3), catopen(3), nls(7)AUTHORS
The Native Language Support (NLS) message catalog facility was contrib‐
uted by J.T. Conklin ⟨jtc@NetBSD.org⟩. This page was originally written
by
Kee Hinckley ⟨nazgul@somewhere.com⟩.
BSD December 29, 2011 BSD
