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BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)          Library Functions Manual          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  li-
       braries.

       Message catalogs will be expected at the pathnames dirname/locale/cate-
       gory/domainname.mo, where locale is a locale name and category is a lo-
       cale facet such as LC_MESSAGES.

       domainname must be a non-empty string.

       If dirname is not NULL, the base directory for message catalogs belong-
       ing  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 direc-
       tory for domain domainname.

RETURN VALUE
       If successful, the bindtextdomain function returns the current base di-
       rectory  for domain domainname, after possibly changing it. The result-
       ing string is valid until the next bindtextdomain call for the same do-
       mainname 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 warn-
       ings in C code predating ANSI C.

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

GNU gettext 0.20.1.124-32cf        May 2001                  BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)

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