gencat(CP)                     6 January 1993                     gencat(CP)


 Name

    gencat - generate a formatted message catalogue

 Syntax

    gencat [ -X ] [catfile | -] [msgfile | -] [ msgfile ... ]

 Description

    gencat merges the message text source file(s) msgfile into a formatted
    message catalogue catfile.  catfile will be created if it does not
    already exist.  If catfile does already exist its messages will be
    included in the new catfile.  If set and message numbers collide, the new
    message-text defined in msgfile will replace the old message text
    currently contained in catfile.  gencat will complain about formats not
    defined in the X/Open Portability Guide.

    The following options are recognized by gencat:

    -         Use standard output or standard input in the place of (respec-
              tively) catfile or msgfile.

    -X        Inhibits the check for portability to X/Open.

 Exit status

    gencat returns ``0'' on success or ``1'' on failure.

 Application usage

    Message catalogues produced by gencat are binary encoded, meaning that
    their portability cannot be guaranteed between different types of ma-
    chines.  Therefore, just as C programs need to be recompiled for each
    type of machine, message catalogues must be recreated via gencat.

    gencat and dumpmsg are capable of handling message catalogs with
    variable-length filenames in their file headers.  To convert old message
    catalogs to this format, use the following example as a model:

       dumpmsg old.cat new.msg
       gencat new.cat new.msg


 See also

    dumpmsg(CP), mar(CP)

 Standards conformance

    The -X option is specific to this implementation.