NAME

gencat − generate a formatted message catalogue

SYNOPSIS

gencat −c catfile msgfile ...

DESCRIPTION

The gencat utility merges the message text source file(s) msgfile into a formatted message catalogue catfile. The file catfile will be created if it does not already exist.  If catfile does 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.

If the −c option is specified on the command line or the existing catfile was generated with the −c option, the catfile will be “confidential,” that is, it will not be translatable into a message text source file by the showcat(1P) utility.

In this implementation, gencat makes the following interpretations with respect to the format of a message text source file (see gencat(4P) for the format of a message text source file as defined in the X/Open Portability Guide, Volume 3, XSI Supplementary Definitions, Section 5.2.1, “Message Text Source Files”):

1.  Set number ordering relates to set numbers from both $set and $delset directives.  Thus, the following is illegal:

$delset 2
$set 1

2.  A set or message number can be equal to the preceding one.  Thus, the following is legal:

$delset 2
$set 2

3.  If any line in a message text source file (not just a text string) ends with a backslash (\), that is treated as a line continuation. 

This utility operates in an 8-bit transparent manner. 

ERRORS

If there are any errors in the course of processing any msgfile or, if it exists, catfile, gencat will not generate a new catfile and its exit status will be 1.  Under certain error conditions, gencat will continue processing all msgfiles before exiting with an error status. These conditions include:

1.  If catfile exists, either it cannot be opened, there is an error reading it, or it has corrupted data. 

2.  For any msgfile, either it cannot be opened or it has a syntax error. 

For any other errors, exit will be immediate. 

WARNINGS

The following conditions will not generate an error but will cause a warning message to be printed:

1.  There is an attempt to delete a message or set that doesn’t exist. 

2.  The specified catfile is an empty file. 

3.  A temporary file cannot be unlinked. 

NOTES

Using non-contiguous set or message numbers, using a set number other than 1 as the first set, or using a message number other than 1 as the first message of a set will cause the size of catfile to be larger than using only contiguous numbers starting with 1. 

Message catalogues produced by gencat are binary encoded, which means that their portability cannot be guaranteed between different types of machines.  Thus, just as C programs need to be recompiled for each type of machine, so message catalogues must be recreated via gencat.

SEE ALSO

gencat(4P) in the INTERACTIVE SDS Guide and Programmer’s Reference Manual. 
showcat(1P) in the International Supplement Guide.

ADDED VALUE

This entry, supplied by Sun Microsystems, Inc., is an extension of UNIX System V. 

\*U  —  Version 1.0