NAME

catgets — retrieve string from message catalog

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

#include <nl_types.h>

char *
catgets(nl_catd catd, int set_id, int msg_id, const char *s);

DESCRIPTION

The catgets() function attempts to retrieve message msg_id of set set_id from the message catalog referenced by the descriptor catd. The argument s points to a default message which is returned if the function is unable to retrieve the specified message.

RETURN VALUES

If the specified message was retrieved successfully, catgets() returns a pointer to an internal buffer containing the message string; otherwise it returns s.

ERRORS

The catgets() function will fail if:

[EBADF]

The catd argument is not a valid message catalog descriptor open for reading.

[EINTR]

The operation was interrupted by a signal.

[ENOMSG]

The message identified by set_id and msg_id is not in the message catalog.

SEE ALSO

gencat(1), catclose(3), catopen(3), nls(7)

STANDARDS

The catgets() function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”).

Major Unix vendors are split over the adoption of the two most important message catalog specifications: catgets or gettext(3). The primary concern with the catgets interface is that every translatable string has to define a number (or a symbolic constant) which must correspond to the message in the catalog. Duplicate message IDs are not allowed. Constructing message catalogs is difficult.