msggen merges the message text source files
msgfile into a machine independent formatted message catalog
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. Non-ASCII characters must be UTF-8 encoded.
iconv(1) can be used to convert to/from UTF-8.
Message text source files are in
gencat(1) format, defined as follows. Note
that the fields of a message text source line are separated by a single blank character. Any other blank characters are considered
as being part of the subsequent field. The
NL_* constants are defined in one or both of
<limits.h> and
<nl_types.h>
.
- $ comment
A line beginning with $ followed by a blank character is treated as a
comment.
- $delset n comment
This line deletes message set n from an
existing message catalog. n denotes the set number [1, NL_SETMAX]. Any text following the set number is treated as a
comment.
- $quote c
This line specifies an optional quote character c, which can be used to
surround message-text so that trailing spaces or empty messages are visible in a message source line. By default, or if an
empty $quote directive is supplied, no quoting of message-text will be recognized.
- $set n comment
This line specifies the set identifier of the following
messages until the next $set or end-of-file appears. n denotes the set identifier, which is defined as a number in
the range [1, NL_SETMAX]. Set numbers need not be contiguous. Any text following the set identifier is treated as a comment.
If no $set directive is specified in a message text source file, all messages will be located in message set 1.
- $translation identification YYYY-MM-DD[,...]
Append translation info to the message catalog header. Only the newest date for a given identification is retained
in the catalog. Multiple translation lines are combined into a single , separated list.
- m message-text
m denotes the message identifier, which is defined as a
number in the range [1, NL_MSGMAX]. The message-text is stored in the message catalogue with the set identifier specified by
the last $set directive, and with message identifier m. If the message-text is empty, and a blank character
field separator is present, an empty string is stored in the message catalogue. If a message source line has a message number, but
neither a field separator nor message-text, the existing message with that number (if any) is deleted from the catalogue.
Message identifiers need not be contiguous. There are no message-text length restrictions.