GETTXT(1) User Commands GETTXT(1)
NAME
gettxt - retrieve a text string from a message database
SYNOPSIS
gettxt msgfile :
msgnum [
dflt_msg]
DESCRIPTION
gettxt retrieves a text string from a message file in the directory
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES . The directory name
locale corresponds to the language in which the text strings are written; see
setlocale(3C).
msgfile Name of the file in the directory
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES to retrieve
msgnum from.
The name of
msgfile can be up to 14 characters in length,
but may not contain either \0 (null) or the
ASCII code for
/ (slash) or
: (colon).
msgnum Sequence number of the string to retrieve from
msgfile. The
strings in
msgfile are numbered sequentially from
1 to
n,
where
n is the number of strings in the file.
dflt_msg Default string to be displayed if
gettxt fails to retrieve
msgnum from
msgfile. Nongraphic characters must be
represented as alphabetic escape sequences.
The text string to be retrieved is in the file
msgfile, created by the
mkmsgs(1) utility and installed under the directory
/usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES . You control which directory is
searched by setting the environment variable
LC_MESSAGES. If
LC_MESSAGES is not set, the environment variable
LANG will be used. If
LANG is not
set, the files containing the strings are under the directory
/usr/lib/locale/C/LC_MESSAGES .
If
gettxt fails to retrieve a message in the requested language, it will
try to retrieve the same message from
/usr/lib/locale/C/LC_MESSAGES/ msgfile. If this also fails, and if
dflt_msg is present and non-null,
then it will display the value of
dflt_msg; if
dflt_msg is not present or
is null, then it will display the string
Message not found!!.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: The environment variables LANG and LC_MESSAGES.
If the environment variables
LANG or
LC_MESSAGES have not been set to
other than their default values, the following example:
example% gettxt UX:10 "hello world\n" will try to retrieve the 10th message from
/usr/lib/locale/C/UX/msgfile.
If the retrieval fails, the message "hello world," followed by a newline,
will be displayed.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See
environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of
gettxt:
LC_CTYPE and
LC_MESSAGES. LC_CTYPE Determines how
gettxt handles characters. When
LC_CTYPE is set to a valid value,
gettxt can display and handle
text and filenames containing valid characters for that
locale.
gettxt can display and handle Extended Unix Code
(EUC) characters where any individual character can be 1,
2, or 3 bytes wide.
gettxt can also handle
EUC characters
of 1, 2, or more column widths. In the "C" locale, only
characters from ISO 8859-1 are valid.
LC_MESSAGES Determines how diagnostic and informative messages are
presented. This includes the language and style of the
messages, and the correct form of affirmative and
negative responses. In the "C" locale, the messages are
presented in the default form found in the program itself
(in most cases, U.S. English).
FILES
/usr/lib/locale/C/LC_MESSAGES/* default message files created by
mkmsgs(1) /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/* message files for different languages created by
mkmsgs(1)ATTRIBUTES
See
attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+-----------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|CSI | Enabled |
+---------------+-----------------+
SEE ALSO
exstr(1),
mkmsgs(1),
srchtxt(1),
gettxt(3C),
setlocale(3C),
attributes(7),
environ(7) December 20, 1996
GETTXT(1)