man3/catgets.3

   1 .\" Copyright 1993 Mitchum DSouza <m.dsouza@mrc-applied-psychology.cambridge.ac.uk>
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  23 .\" Updated, aeb, 980809
  24 .TH CATGETS 3 1998-08-09
  25 .SH NAME
  26 catgets \- get message from a message catalog
  27 .SH SYNOPSIS
  28 .nf
  29 .B #include <nl_types.h>
  30
  31 .BI "char *catgets(nl_catd " catalog ", int " set_number \
  32 ", int " message_number ,
  33 .BI "              const char *" message );
  34 .fi
  35 .SH DESCRIPTION
  36 .BR catgets ()
  37 reads the message
  38 .IR message_number ,
  39 in set
  40 .IR set_number ,
  41 from the message catalog identified by
  42 .IR catalog ,
  43 where
  44 .I catalog
  45 is a catalog descriptor returned from an earlier call to
  46 .BR catopen (3).
  47 The fourth argument
  48 .I message
  49 points to a default message string which will be returned by
  50 .BR catgets ()
  51 if the identified message catalog is not currently available.
  52 The
  53 message-text is contained in an internal buffer area and should be copied by
  54 the application if it is to be saved or modified.
  55 The return string is
  56 always terminated with a null byte.
  57 .SH "RETURN VALUE"
  58 .LP
  59 On success,
  60 .BR catgets ()
  61 returns a pointer to an internal buffer area
  62 containing the null-terminated message string.
  63 On failure,
  64 .BR catgets ()
  65 returns the value
  66 .IR message .
  67 .SH NOTES
  68 These functions are only available in libc.so.4.4.4c and above.
  69 The Jan 1987 X/Open Portability Guide specifies a more subtle
  70 error return:
  71 .I message
  72 is returned if the message catalog specified by
  73 .I catalog
  74 is not available, while an empty string is returned
  75 when the message catalog is available but does not contain
  76 the specified message.
  77 These two possible error returns seem to be discarded in SUSv2
  78 in favour of always returning
  79 .IR message .
  80 .SH "CONFORMING TO"
  81 POSIX.1-2001.
  82 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  83 .BR catopen (3),
  84 .BR setlocale (3)