GENCAT(1) BSD General Commands Manual GENCAT(1)NAMEgencat — generates a Native Language Support (NLS) message catalog file
SYNOPSISgencat catalog-file message-file [message-file ...]
DESCRIPTION
The gencat command reads one or more files containing message strings
that will be displayed using the catgets(3) library call. From these
files it generates a message catalog which is loaded dynamically by the
Native Language Support (NLS) library at run time.
The message description files are text files in the format described
below.
The message catalog file is a binary file. If it already exists, it will
be truncated when gencat is run.
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 FILE FORMAT
Empty lines and leading blanks are ignored.
$set NN Determines the set to be used for all subsequent messages.
NN is an integer greater than 0.
$delset NN Removes a set from the catalog. NN is an integer greater
than 0.
If a set was created earlier in the current file, or in a
file previously read by the gencat command, this command will
remove it.
$quote C Sets a quote character to be used around the messages. C may
be any character other than white space.
If this is specified, then messages must begin and end with
the quote character. By default no quote character is used.
If none is specified, then the current quote character is
unset. This is useful when messages must contain leading
white space.
NN message Defines a message. NN is an integer greater than 0.
The message is read until the end of the line or a quote
character (if one is specified). If no message is provided,
the message with the number NN is removed from the catalog.
If no "set" has been created, this command generates an
error.
Messages may contain any characters, however the "\" is special as an
escape character, where the following instances are allowed:
\\ Generates a single backslash.
\n Generates a newline (as defined by the C compiler).
\t Generates a tab (as defined by the C compiler).
\v Generates a vertical tab (as defined by the C compiler).
\b Generates a backspace (as defined by the C compiler).
\r Generates a carriage return (as defined by the C compiler).
\f Generates a form feed (as defined by the C compiler).
\NNN Generates the character corresponding to the specified
octal number.
\EOL A backslash at the end of line continues the message onto
the next line.
\quote A backslash preceding the current quote character generates
the quote character.
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 written by Kee
Hinckley ⟨nazgul@somewhere.com⟩.
BSD April 29, 1999 BSD
