GENCAT(1POSIX)

📦 version 2017a, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🌸 PROLOG 🌸

okay bestie, quick heads up before we dive in: this page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, go check the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior), or honestly the interface may not even be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈

✨ NAME ✨

gencat — generate a formatted message catalog 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gencat catfile msgfile...

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the gencat utility shall merge the message text source file msgfile into a formatted message catalog catfile. That's the whole vibe.

The file catfile shall be created if it does not already exist. If catfile does already exist, its messages shall be included in the new catfile. And if set and message numbers collide? The new message text defined in msgfile shall replace the old message text currently chillin' in catfile. New over old, periodt. 👑

🦋 OPTIONS 🦋

None. Literally none. Not a single one. ✨

🌸 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. simple as that 🫶

🌈 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. no drama here 💅

⭐ 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 👑

okay this is the main character section, bestie, pay attention 📝

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:

  • <newline> — symbol NL(LF) — sequence \n
  • Horizontal-tab — symbol HT — sequence \t
  • <vertical-tab> — symbol VT — sequence \v
  • <backspace> — symbol BS — sequence \b
  • <carriage-return> — symbol CR — sequence \r
  • <form-feed> — symbol FF — sequence \f
  • Backslash — symbol \ — sequence \\
  • Bit pattern — symbol ddd — sequence \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:

  1. 0 — Successful completion. 🎉
  2. >0 — An error occurred. 💀

🌟 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS 🌟

Default.

The following sections are informative. (iykyk — informative means it's the lore, not the law ✨)

🫶 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. no cap, you gotta regenerate them every time 🥲

🌸 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>

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 .

and that's the whole page bestie, mwah 💋 this iconic lil number is GENCAT(1POSIX), brought to you by IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017. go forth and generate those catalogs 👑✨
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