Msgcat(3pm)

💖 NAME 💖

Locale::Msgcat — a Perl extension for blah blah blah 🫶 (yes bestie, the original really says "blah blah blah", we are keeping it, it's iconic)

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay so here's the whole vibe in code form, copy-paste girlies:

use Locale::Msgcat;

$cat = new Locale::Msgcat;

$rc  = $cat->catopen(name, oflag);
$msg = $cat->catgets(set_number, message_number, string);
$rc  = $cat->catclose();

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

The Locale::Msgcat module lets you get at the message catalog functions that exist on some systems. Heads up: you gotta make a brand new Locale::Msgcat object first for each catalog that has to be open at any given time. No sharing, no reusing, one object per open catalog, periodt. 💅

The catopen operation opens the catalog whose name you hand it as the argument. The oflag can be either 0 or NL_CAT_LOCALE (which is usually 1, and which is the recommended value btw — trust, pick that one). ✨

The catgets message pulls message_number for the set_number message set, and if it doesn't find it, it just returns string instead. No drama, no crash, it's giving graceful. 🦋

The catclose function should be used when you don't need access to a catalog anymore. Close your catalogs bestie, it's self-care. 🎀

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

watch this, it's a whole moment:

use Locale::Msgcat;

$cat = new Locale::Msgcat;
unless ($cat->catopen("whois.cat", 1)) {
    print STDERR "Can't open whois catalog.\n";
    exit(1);
}
printf "First message, first set : %s\n", $cat->catgets(1, 1, "not found");
unless ($cat->catclose()) {
    print STDERR "Can't close whois catalog.\n";
    exit(1);
}

The above example would print the first message from the first message set found in the whois catalog, or if it's not found it would print "not found". that's it, that's the whole plot. 👑

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Christophe Wolfhugel, wolf@pasteur.fr — the original main character who wrote this. 🫶

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• catopen(3)
• catclose(3)
• catgets(3)
• perl(1)

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and that's the tea, bestie ☕ this whole page came to you courtesy of perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-19, and it lives under the name Msgcat(3pm). go forth and open some catalogs, ilysm 💖✨