COLTBL(M) UNIX System V
Name
coltbl - create a collation locale table
Syntax
coltbl [ specfile ]
Description
The utility coltbl is provided to allow LC_COLLATE locales
to be defined. It reads in a specification file (or standard
input if specfile is not defined), containing defintions for
a particular locale's collation ordering, and produces a
concise format table file, to be read by setlocale(S).
In general, characters may be specified in one of six
different ways (the following examples all specify the ASCII
character ``A''):
65 decimal
0101 octal
0x41 hexadecimal
'A' quoted character
'\101' quoted octal
'\x41' quoted hexadecimal
The information in the specification file is to an extent
free format. A particular type of definition is started by
one of the following keywords:
PRIM:
ZERO:
EQUIV:
DOUBLE:
The keywords, PRIM:, ZERO: and EQUIV:, are
concerned directly with the setting of the collation
ordering of characters
A group of characters which are to be collated as equal,
unless all other characters in a pair of strings are also
equal, are grouped together with the PRIM: keyword. The
position of a particular group in the specification file is
significant as far as the collation ordering is concerned.
Collating elements following the PRIM: keyword are separated
by white spaces. A two character collating element can be
specified here by (a b), where a and b are the two
characters making up the sequence. The order of the
collating elements defined in one group is significant in
secondary collation ordering. It is also possible to define
a range of characters, for example:
PRIM: 'a' - 'z'
Collating elements following the ZERO: keyword, are to be
ignored when collating. The format of the definitions is the
same as with PRIM: . Ranges of characters can also be
defined, as for example:
ZERO: 0x80 - 0x9f
EQUIV: is used to give two collating elements identical
positions in the collation ordering. The syntax is:
EQUIV: a = b
where a and b are the two equal collating elements. There
can be only one definition for each occurrence of this
keyword.
Single characters which are to be collated as two
characters, for example the German sharp s, are defined with
the DOUBLE: keyword. The syntax is:
DOUBLE: a = (b c)
where a is the single character, and b and c are the two
characters in the collating sequence. There can be only one
definition for each occurrence of this keyword. The single
character a must not also appear after a PRIM: , a ZERO:
or a EQUIV: keyword.
All characters following the hash character are treated as a
comment and ignored up to the end of the line, unless the
hash is within a quoted string.
The concise format locale table is placed in a file named
collate in the current directory. This file should be copied
or moved to the correct place in the setlocale(S) file tree
(see locale(M)). To prevent accidental corruption of the
output data, the file is created with no write permission;
if the coltbl utility is run in a directory containing a
write-protected collate file, the utility will ask if the
existing file should be replaced - any response other than
``yes'' or ``y'' will cause coltbl to terminate without
overwriting the existing file.
See Also
chrtbl(M), collation(S), locale(M), numtbl(M), mestbl(M),
montbl(M), timtbl(M), setlocale(S)
Diagnostics
All error messages printed are self explanatory.
Value Added
coltbl is an extension of AT&T System V provided by the
Santa Cruz Operation.
(printed 8/23/89) COLTBL(M)