catopen(3C)                                              catopen(3C)


       NAME
             catopen, catclose - open/close a message catalog

       SYNOPSIS
             #include <nl_types.h>
             nl_catd catopen(const char *name, int oflag);
             int catclose(nl_catd catd);

       DESCRIPTION
             catopen opens a message catalog and returns a catalog
             descriptor.  name specifies the name of the message catalog to
             be opened.  If name contains a ``/'' then name specifies a
             pathname for the message catalog.  Otherwise, the environment
             variable NLSPATH is used.  If NLSPATH does not exist in the
             environment, or if a message catalog cannot be opened in any
             of the paths specified by NLSPATH, then the default path is
             used [see nl_types(5)].

             The names of message catalogs, and their location in the
             filestore, can vary from one system to another.  Individual
             applications can choose to name or locate message catalogs
             according to their own special needs.  A mechanism is
             therefore required to specify where the catalog resides.

             The NLSPATH variable provides both the location of message
             catalogs, in the form of a search path, and the naming
             conventions associated with message catalog files.  For
             example:

                   NLSPATH=/nlslib/%L/%N.cat:/nlslib/%N/%L

             The metacharacter % introduces a substitution field, where %L
             substitutes the current setting of the locale (see below) and
             %N substitutes the value of the name parameter passed to
             catopen.  Thus, in the above example, catopen will search in
             /nlslib/locale/name.cat, then in /nlslib/name/locale, for the
             required message catalog.

             The evaluation of locale as referenced by the substitution
             field %L depends on the argument oflag.  When oflag is
             NL_CAT_LOCALE, the LC_MESSAGES category as returned by
             setlocale(3C) is used to locate the message catalog.  When
             oflag is zero, the environment variable LANG locates the
             catalog without regard to the LC_MESSAGES category.  If either
             of these methods fails, then the default language as defined
             in nl_types.h is used.


                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1

      catopen(3C)                                              catopen(3C)


            For a complete description of the metacharacters available for
            NLSPATH, see environ(5).

            NLSPATH will normally be set up on a system wide basis (for
            example, in /etc/profile) and thus makes the location and
            naming conventions associated with message catalogs
            transparent to both programs and users.

            catclose closes the message catalog identified by catd.

         Return Values
            If successful, catopen returns a message catalog descriptor
            for use in subsequent calls to catgets and catclose.
            Otherwise catopen returns (nl_catd)-1.

            catclose returns zero if successful, otherwise -1.

      REFERENCES
            catgets(3C), environ(5), nl_types(5), setlocale(3C)





























                          Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 2