bindtextdomain

BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)					    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 call-
       ing 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/cat-
       egory/domainname.mo,  where  locale is a locale name and category is a
       locale facet such as LC_MESSAGES.

       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; otherwise 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  possibly  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 alloca-
       tion 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 warn-
       ings in C code predating ANSI C.

SEE ALSO
       gettext(3),   dgettext(3),  dcgettext(3),  ngettext(3),	dngettext(3),
       dcngettext(3), textdomain(3), realpath(3)



GNU gettext 0.14.1		   May 2001		    BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)