.\" $NetBSD: gettext.3,v 1.12 2009/11/12 00:43:52 joerg Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2000 Citrus Project, .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd November 10, 2004 .Dt GETTEXT 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm gettext , .Nm dgettext , .Nm ngettext , .Nm dngettext , .Nm textdomain , .Nm bindtextdomain , .Nm bind_textdomain_codeset , .Nm dcgettext , .Nm dcngettext .Nd message handling functions .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libintl .Sh SYNOPSIS .In libintl.h .Ft char * .Fn gettext "const char *msgid" .Ft char * .Fn dgettext "const char *domainname" "const char *msgid" .Ft char * .Fn ngettext "const char *msgid1" "const char *msgid2" "unsigned long int n" .Ft char * .Fn dngettext "const char *domainname" "const char *msgid1" "const char *msgid2" "unsigned long int n" .Ft char * .Fn textdomain "const char *domainname" .Ft char * .Fn bindtextdomain "const char *domainname" "const char *dirname" .Ft char * .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset "const char *domainname" "const char *codeset" .In libintl.h .In locale.h .Ft char * .Fn dcgettext "const char *domainname" "const char *msgid" "int category" .Ft char * .Fn dcngettext "const char *domainname" "const char *msgid1" "const char *msgid2" "unsigned long int n" "int category" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn gettext , .Fn dgettext , and .Fn dcgettext functions attempt to retrieve a target string based on the specified .Fa msgid argument within the context of a specific domain and the current locale. The length of strings returned by .Fn gettext , .Fn dgettext , and .Fn dcgettext is undetermined until the function is called. The .Fa msgid argument is a nul-terminated string. .Pp The .Fn ngettext , .Fn dngettext , and .Fn dcngettext functions are equivalent to .Fn gettext , .Fn dgettext , and .Fn dcgettext , respectively, except for the handling of plural forms. The .Fn ngettext , .Fn dngettext , and .Fn dcngettext functions search for the message string using the .Fa msgid1 argument as the key, using the argument .Fa n to determine the plural form. If no message catalogs are found, .Fa msgid1 is returned if .Fa n Li == 1 , otherwise .Fa msgid2 is returned. .Pp The .Dv LANGUAGE environment variable is examined first to determine the message catalogs to be used. The value of the .Dv LANGUAGE environment variable is a list of locale names separated by colon (:) character. If the .Dv LANGUAGE environment variable is defined, each locale name is tried in the specified order and if a message catalog containing the requested message is found, the message is returned. If the .Dv LANGUAGE environment variable is defined but failed to locate a message catalog, the .Fa msgid string will be returned. .Pp If the .Dv LANGUAGE environment variable is not defined, .Dv LC_ALL , .Dv LC_xxx , and .Dv LANG environment variables are examined to locate the message catalog, following the convention used by the .Xr setlocale 3 function. .Pp The pathname used to locate the message catalog is .Pa dirname/locale/category/domainname.mo , where dirname is the directory specified by .Fn bindtextdomain , locale is a locale name determined by the definition of environment variables, .Fa category is .Dv LC_MESSAGES if .Fn gettext , .Fn ngettext , .Fn dgettext , or .Fn dngettext is called, otherwise .Dv LC_xxx where the name is the same as the locale category name specified by the .Fa category argument of .Fn dcgettext or .Fn dcngettext . .Fa domainname is the name of the domain specified by .Fn textdomain or the .Fa domainname argument of .Fn dgettext , .Fn dngettext , .Fn dcgettext , or .Fn dcngettext . .Pp For .Fn gettext and .Fn ngettext , the domain used is set by the last valid call to .Fn textdomain . If a valid call to .Fn textdomain has not been made, the default domain (called messages) is used. .Pp For .Fn dgettext , .Fn dngettext , .Fn dcgettext , and .Fn dcngettext , the domain used is specified by the .Fa domainname argument. The .Fa domainname argument is equivalent in syntax and meaning to the .Fa domainname argument to .Fn textdomain , except that the selection of the domain is valid only for the duration of the .Fn dgettext , .Fn dngettext , .Fn dcgettext , or .Fn dcngettext function call. .Pp The .Fn dcgettext and .Fn dcngettext functions require additional argument .Fa category for retrieving message string for other than .Dv LC_MESSAGES category. Available value for the .Fa category argument are .Dv LC_CTYPE , .Dv LC_COLLATE , .Dv LC_MESSAGES , .Dv LC_MONETARY , .Dv LC_NUMERIC , and .Dv LC_TIME . The call of .Fn dcgettext "domainname" "msgid" "LC_MESSAGES" is equivalent to .Fn dgettext "domainname" "msgid" . Note that .Dv LC_ALL must not be used. .Pp The .Fn textdomain function sets or queries the name of the current domain of the active .Dv LC_MESSAGES locale category. The .Fa domainname argument is a nul-terminated string that can contain only the characters allowed in legal filenames. .Pp The .Fa domainname argument is the unique name of a domain on the system. If there are multiple versions of the same domain on one system, namespace collisions can be avoided by using .Fn bindtextdomain . If .Fn textdomain is not called, a default domain is selected. The setting of domain made by the last valid call to .Fn textdomain remains valid across subsequent calls to .Xr setlocale 3 , and .Fn gettext . .Pp The .Fa domainname argument is applied to the currently active LC_MESSAGES locale. .Pp The current setting of the domain can be queried without affecting the current state of the domain by calling .Fn textdomain with .Fa domainname set to the .Dv NULL pointer. Calling .Fn textdomain with a .Fa domainname argument of a .Dv NULL string sets the domain to the default domain .Pq messages . .Pp The .Fn bindtextdomain function binds the path predicate for a message domain .Fa domainname to the value contained in dirname. If .Fa domainname is a non-empty string and has not been bound previously, .Fn bindtextdomain binds .Fa domainname with .Fa dirname . .Pp If .Fa domainname is a non-empty string and has been bound previously, .Fn bindtextdomain replaces the old binding with dirname. The dirname argument can be an absolute pathname being resolved when .Fn gettext , .Fn ngettext , .Fn dgettext , .Fn dngettext , .Fn dcgettext , or .Fn dcngettext are called. If .Fa domainname is a .Dv NULL pointer or an empty string, .Fn bindtextdomain returns a .Dv NULL pointer. If .Fn bindtextdomain is not called, implementation-defined default directory is used. .Pp The .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset function can be used to specify the output .Fa codeset for message catalogs for domain .Fa domainname . The .Fa codeset argument must be a valid codeset name which can be used for the .Xr iconv_open 3 function. .Pp If the .Fa codeset argument is the .Dv NULL pointer, .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset returns the currently selected .Fa codeset for the domain with the name .Fa domainname . It returns a .Dv NULL pointer if no .Fa codeset has yet been selected. .Pp The .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset function can be used several times. If used multiple times, with the same .Fa domainname argument, the later call overrides the settings made by the earlier one. .Pp The .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset function returns a pointer to a string containing the name of the selected .Fa codeset . .\".Sh "RETURN VALUES" .\".Sh EXAMPLES .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr setlocale 3 , .Xr nls 7 .\".Sh STANDARDS .Sh HISTORY The functions are implemented by Citrus project, based on the documentations for GNU gettext. .Sh BUGS .\" The text was ripped off from Annex C of .\" .Dq LI18NUX 2000 Globalization Specification Version 1.0 . .\" .Pp .Fn bind_textdomain_codeset does not work at this moment .Pq it always fails .