Standard C Library Functions catopen(3C)
NAME
catopen, catclose - open/close a message catalog
SYNOPSIS
#include
nl_catd catopen(const char *name, int oflag);
int catclose(nl_catd catd);
DESCRIPTION
The catopen() function opens a message catalog and returns a message catalog descriptor. name specifies the name of the message catalog to be opened. If name contains a "/", then name specifies a complete pathname for the message catalog; otherwise, the environment variable NLSPATH is used and/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES must exist. If NLSPATH
does not exist in the environment, or if a message catalog cannot be opened in any of the paths specified by NLSPATH,then the default path /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES is
used. In the "C" locale, catopen() will always succeed without checking the default search path. The names of message catalogs and their location in the filesystem can vary from one system to another. Individual applications can choose to name or locate message catalogsaccording to their own special needs. A mechanism is there-
fore required to specify where the catalog resides. The NLSPATH variable provides both the location of messagecatalogs, in the form of a search path, and the naming con-
ventions associated with message catalog files. For exam-
ple:NLSPATH=/nlslib/%L/%N.cat:/nlslib/%N/%L
The metacharacter % introduces a substitution field, where
%L substitutes the current setting of either the LANG
environment variable, if the value of oflag is 0, or theLC_MESSAGES category, if the value of oflag is
NL_CAT_LOCALE, and %N substitutes the value of the name
parameter passed to catopen(). Thus, in the above example,catopen() will search in /nlslib/$LANG/name.cat, if oflag
is 0, or in /nlslib/{LC_MESSAGES}/name.cat, if oflag is
NL_CAT_LOCALE.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 29 Dec 1996 1
Standard C Library Functions catopen(3C) The NLSPATH variable will normally be set up on a system wide basis (in /etc/profile) and thus makes the location andnaming conventions associated with message catalogs tran-
sparent to both programs and users. The full set of metacharacters is:%N The value of the name parameter passed to catopen().
%L The value of LANG or LC_MESSAGES.
%l The value of the language element of LANG or
LC_MESSAGES.
%t The value of the territory element of LANG or
LC_MESSAGES.
%c The value of the codeset element of LANG or
LC_MESSAGES.
%% A single %.
The LANG environment variable provides the ability to specify the user's requirements for native languages, local customs and character set, as an ASCII string in the formLANG=language[_territory[.codeset]]
A user who speaks German as it is spoken in Austria and has a terminal which operates in ISO 8859/1 codeset, would want the setting of the LANG variable to beLANG=De_A.88591
With this setting it should be possible for that user to find any relevant catalogs should they exist. Should the LANG variable not be set, the value ofLC_MESSAGES as returned by setlocale() is used. If this is
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 29 Dec 1996 2
Standard C Library Functions catopen(3C)NULL, the default path as defined in
A message catalogue descriptor remains valid in a process until that process closes it, or a successful call to one of the exec functions. A change in the setting of theis used. LC_MESSAGES category may invalidate existing open catalo-
gues. If a file descriptor is used to implement message cataloguedescriptors, the FD_CLOEXEC flag will be set; see
If the value of oflag argument is 0, the LANG environment variable is used to locate the catalogue without regard to. the LC_MESSAGES category. If the oflag argument is
NL_CAT_LOCALE, the LC_MESSAGES category is used to locate
the message catalogue.The catclose() function closes the message catalog identi-
fied by catd. If a file descriptor is used to implement thetype nl_catd, that file descriptor will be closed.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, catopen() returns a messagecatalog descriptor for use on subsequent calls to cat-
gets() and catclose(). Otherwise it returns (nl_catd) -1.
Upon successful completion, catclose() returns 0. Otherwise
it returns -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The catopen() function may fail if:EACCES Search permission is denied for the com-
ponent of the path prefix of the message catalogue or read permission is denied for the message catalogue.EMFILE There are OPEN_MAX file descriptors
currently open in the calling process.ENAMETOOLONG The length of the pathname of the message
catalogue exceeds PATH_MAX, or a pathname
component is longer than NAME_MAX.
SunOS 5.11 Last change: 29 Dec 1996 3
Standard C Library Functions catopen(3C)ENAMETOOLONG Pathname resolution of a symbolic link pro-
duced an intermediate result whose lengthexceeds PATH_MAX.
ENFILE Too many files are currently open in the system. ENOENT The message catalogue does not exist or the name argument points to an empty string. ENOMEM Insufficient storage space is available.ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix of the mes-
sage catalogue is not a directory.The catclose() function may fail if:
EBADF The catalogue descriptor is not valid.EINTR The catclose() function was interrupted by a sig-
nal.USAGE
The catopen() and catclose() functions can be used safely in
multithreaded applications, as long as setlocale(3C) is not being called to change the locale.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:SunOS 5.11 Last change: 29 Dec 1996 4
Standard C Library Functions catopen(3C)____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Interface Stability | Committed ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
| MT-Level | MT-Safe |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Standard | See standards(5). ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
gencat(1), catgets(3C), gettext(3C), nl_types.h(3HEAD),
setlocale(3C), attributes(5), environ(5)SunOS 5.11 Last change: 29 Dec 1996 5