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, ev-
ery 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 0.19.8.1 May 2001 BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)