ATMI C Function Reference
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catopen, catclose(3c)
Name
catopen(), catclose()—Opens/closes a message catalogue.
Synopsis
#include <nl_types.h>
nl_catd catopen (char *name, int oflag)
int catclose (nl_catd catd)
Description
catopen() opens a message catalogue and returns a catalogue descriptor. name specifies the name of the message catalogue to be opened. If name contains a "/" then name specifies a pathname for the message catalogue. Otherwise, the environment variable NLSPATH is used. If NLSPATH does not exist in the environment, or if a message catalogue cannot be opened in any of the paths specified by NLSPATH, then the default path is used (see nl_types(5)).
The names of message catalogues, and their location in the filestore, can vary from one system to another. Individual applications can choose to name or locate message catalogues according to their own special needs. A mechanism is therefore required to specify where the catalogue resides.
The NLSPATH variable provides both the location of message catalogues, in the form of a search path, and the naming conventions associated with message catalogue files. For example:
NLSPATH=/nlslib/%L/%N.cat:/nlslib/%N/%L
The metacharacter % introduces a substitution field, where %L substitutes the current setting of the LANG environment variable (see following section), and %N substitutes the value of the name parameter passed to catopen(). Thus, in the above example, catopen() will search in /nlslib/$LANG/name.cat, then in /nlslib/name/$LANG, for the required message catalogue.
NLSPATH will normally be set up on a system wide basis (for example, in /etc/profile) and thus makes the location and naming conventions associated with message catalogues transparent to both programs and users.
The following table lists the full set of metacharacters.
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 form LANG=language[_territory[.codeset]]
A user who speaks German as it is spoken in Austria and has a terminal that operates in ISO 8859/1 codeset, would want the setting of the LANG variable to be as follows:
LANG=De_A.88591
With this setting it should be possible for the user to find relevant catalogues if they exist.
If the LANG variable is not set then the value of LC_MESSAGES as returned by setlocale(3c) is used. If this is NULL then the default path as defined in nl_types(5) is used.
oflag() is reserved for future use and should be set to 0. The results of setting this field to any other value are undefined.
catclose() closes the message catalogue identified by catd.
A thread in a multithreaded application may issue a call to catopen() or catclose() while running in any context state, including TPINVALIDCONTEXT.
Diagnostics
If successful, catopen() returns a message catalogue descriptor for use on subsequent calls to catgets() and catclose(). Otherwise catopen() returns (nl_catd) -1. catclose() returns 0 if successful, otherwise -1.
See Also
catgets(3c), setlocale(3c), nl_types(5)
