gettxt(1)                USER COMMANDS                  gettxt(1)



NAME
     gettxt - retrieve a text string from a message data base

SYNOPSIS
     gettxt msgfile:msgnum [dflt_msg]

DESCRIPTION
     gettxt retrieves a text string from a message  file  in  the
     directory /usr/lib/locale/locale/LCMESSAGES.  The directory
     name locale corresponds to the language in  which  the  text
     strings are written; see setlocale(3C).

     msgfile   Name   of    the    file    in    the    directory
               /usr/lib/locale/locale/LCMESSAGES   to   retrieve
               msgnum from.  The name of msgfile can be up to  14
               characters  in  length, but may not contain either
               \0 (null) or the ASCII code for  /  (slash)  or  :
               (colon).

     msgnum    Sequence number of the  string  to  retrieve  from
               msgfile.   The  strings  in  msgfile  are numbered
               sequentially from 1 to n, where n is the number of
               strings in the file.

     dflt_msg  Default string to be displayed if gettxt fails  to
               retrieve  msgnum from msgfile.  Nongraphic charac-
               ters must  be  represented  as  alphabetic  escape
               sequences.

     The text string to be retrieved  is  in  the  file  msgfile,
     created  by  the  mkmsgs(1)  utility and installed under the
     directory /usr/lib/locale/locale/LCMESSAGES.   You  control
     which directory is searched by setting the environment vari-
     able LCMESSAGES.  If LCMESSAGES is not set,  the  environ-
     ment  variable  LANG  will be used.  If LANG is not set, the
     files  containing  the  strings  are  under  the   directory
     /usr/lib/locale/C/LCMESSAGES.

     If gettxt fails to  retrieve  a  message  in  the  requested
     language,  it  will  try  to  retrieve the same message from
     /usr/lib/locale/C/LCMESSAGES/msgfile.  If this also  fails,
     and  if  dflt_msg  is  present  and  non-null,  then it will
     display the value of dflt_msg; if dflt_msg is not present or
     is  null,  then  it  will  display  the  string  Message not
     found!!.

EXAMPLE
     If the environment variables LANG or  LCMESSAGES  have  not
     been set to other than their default values,
          gettxt UX:10 "hello world\n"
     will   try   to   retrieve    the    10th    message    from
     /usr/lib/locale/C/UX/msgfile.   If  the retrieval fails, the



                                                                1

gettxt(1)                USER COMMANDS                  gettxt(1)



     message "hello world,"  followed  by  a  new-line,  will  be
     displayed.

FILES
     /usr/lib/locale/C/LCMESSAGES/*         default      message
                                             files   created   by
                                             mkmsgs(1)
     /usr/lib/locale/locale/LCMESSAGES/*    message  files   for
                                             different  languages
                                             created by mkmsgs(1)

SEE ALSO
     exstr(1), mkmsgs(1), srchtxt(1).
     gettxt(3C),  setlocale(3C)  in  the  Programmer's  Reference
     Manual.








































                                                                2