bindtextdomain(3)

NAME

       bindtextdomain - set directory containing message catalogs

SYNOPSIS

       #include <libintl.h>

       char * bindtextdomain (const char * domainname, const char * dirname);

DESCRIPTION

       The bindtextdomain function sets the base directory of the
       hierarchy  containing message catalogs for a given message
       domain.

       A message domain is a set of translatable msgid  messages.
       Usually,  every  software  package  has  its  own  message
       domain. The need for calling bindtextdomain arises because
       packages  are not always installed with the same prefix as
       the <libintl.h> header and the libc/libintl libraries.

       Message  catalogs  will  be  expected  at  the   pathnames
       dirname/locale/category/domainname.mo,  where  locale is a
       locale name and category is a locale facet such as LC_MES-
       SAGES.

       domainname must be a non-empty string.

       If  dirname  is  not  NULL, the base directory for message
       catalogs belonging to domain domainname is set to dirname.
       The  function  makes  copies  of  the  argument strings as
       needed. If the program wishes to call the chdir  function,
       it is important that dirname be an absolute pathname; oth-
       erwise it cannot be guaranteed that the  message  catalogs
       will be found.

       If  dirname  is  NULL, the function returns the previously
       set base directory for domain domainname.

RETURN VALUE

       If successful, the  bindtextdomain  function  returns  the
       current base directory for domain domainname, after possi-
       bly changing it. The resulting string is valid  until  the
       next  bindtextdomain call for the same domainname and must
       not be modified or freed. If a memory  allocation  failure
       occurs, it sets errno to ENOMEM and returns NULL.

ERRORS

       The following error can occur, among others:

       ENOMEM Not enough memory available.

BUGS

       The return type ought to be const char *, but is char * to
       avoid warnings in C code predating ANSI C.

SEE ALSO

       gettext(3), dgettext(3), dcgettext(3), ngettext(3), dnget-
       text(3), dcngettext(3), textdomain(3), realpath(3)

GNU gettext 0.16.1           May 2001           BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)