NAME
bindtextdomain - set directory containing message catalogs SYNOPSIS
#include
char * bindtextdomain (const char * domainname, const char * dirname); DESCRIPTION The bindtextdomain function sets the base directory of the hierarchy containing message catalogs for a given message domain. A message domain is a set of translatable msgid messages. Usually, every software package has its own message domain. The need for calling bindtextdomain arises because packages are not always installed with the same prefix as the header and the libc/libintl libraries. Message catalogs will be expected at the pathnames dirname/locale/cate‐ gory/domainname.mo, where locale is a locale name and category is a locale facet such as LCMESSAGES. domainname must be a non-empty string. If dirname is not NULL, the base directory for message catalogs belong‐ ing to domain domainname is set to dirname. The function makes copies of the argument strings as needed. If the program wishes to call the chdir function, it is important that dirname be an absolute pathname; otherwise it cannot be guaranteed that the message catalogs will be found. If dirname is NULL, the function returns the previously set base direc‐ tory for domain domainname. RETURN VALUE If successful, the bindtextdomain function returns the current base directory for domain domainname, after possibly changing it. The resulting string is valid until the next bindtextdomain call for the same domainname and must not be modified or freed. If a memory alloca‐ tion failure occurs, it sets errno to ENOMEM and returns NULL. ERRORS The following error can occur, among others: ENOMEM Not enough memory available. BUGS The return type ought to be const char *, but is char * to avoid warn‐ ings in C code predating ANSI C. SEE ALSO gettext(3), dgettext(3), dcgettext(3), ngettext(3), dngettext(3), dcngettext(3), textdomain(3), realpath(3) GNU gettext 0.19.8.1 May 2001 BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)