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mkcatdefs(1) General Commands Manual mkcatdefs(1) NAME mkcatdefs - Preprocesses a message source file SYNOPSIS mkcatdefs [-h] catname source_file... OPTIONS Suppresses the generation of a <_msg.h> file. DESCRIPTION The mkcatdefs utility preprocesses a message source file to change sym- bolic identifiers into numeric constants. The utility produces two forms of output. The standard output is a set of commands suitable for passing to the gencat utility, which creates a new message catalog. In addition, catname, produces a file named catname_msg.h containing defi- nition statements that equate your symbolic identifiers with set num- bers and message ID numbers assigned by mkcatdefs. The catname_msg.h file is required in your application program if you use symbolic iden- tifiers. See gencat(1) for a description of input format for commands. The only difference between gencat and mkcatdefs is that gencat requires a num- ber to identify each message, while mkcatdefs accepts either a number or a symbolic name. The mkcatdefs program can send message source data, with numbers instead of symbolic identifiers, to standard output. This output is suitable as input to the gencat program. You can use the > (right angle bracket) character to write the new message source to a file, and then use the file as input to the gencat command. A symbolic name is converted to a number in the mkcatdefs output. Each set and message in a program must have a unique number or symbolic name. Symbolic identifiers can contain letters, digits, and under- scores. The first character cannot be a digit or an underscore. You cannot use a symbolic name for a set in the $delset command. The mkcatdefs program is designed to create new message catalogs, not to change existing ones incrementally. Thus, the program's first oper- ation on each set is to delete it, in case the catalog contains a set with that number. The sets specified in source_file are assigned num- bers in ascending order, starting at 1. Within each set, messages are also assigned numbers in ascending order, starting at 1. If you assign a message to a number in your source_file, mkcatdefs continues its as- cending series with that number. Note also that you can use the runcat command rather than the mkcatdefs command. The runcat command automatically sends the message source file through the mkcatdefs command and pipes the files to the gencat command. NOTES Symbolic references allow a convenient input source for both the mes- sage catalog and the program's header file; however, symbolic refer- ences are an extension to X/Open specifications may not be supported on all systems conforming to XPG4. EXAMPLES The following example shows a message source file with symbolic message identifiers and quoted messages: $quote " Use a double quotation mark to delimit message text $set MSFAC Message Facility - symbolic identifiers SYM_FORM "Symbolic identifiers can contain only letters \ and digits and the _ (underscore character)\n" 5 "You can mix sym- bolic identifiers and numbers \n" $quote MSG_H Remember to in- clude the "_msg.h" file in your program\n In the preceding example, the $quote command sets the quote character to " (double quote), then disables it before the last message, which contains double quotes. When you process the file with mkcatdefs, the modified source is written to standard output. Standard output can either be redi- rected to a file using the > (redirection symbol) or piped to gencat. Assume that the preceding file is named symb.src. It can be processed with mkcatdefs as follows: $ mkcatdefs symb symb.src >symb.msg The following source is created: $quote " Use a double quotation mark to delimit message text $delset 1 $set 1 1 "Symbolic identifiers can contain only let- ters \ and digits and the _ (underscore character)\n" 5 "You can mix symbolic identifiers and numbers \n" $quote 6 Remember to include the "_msg.h" file in your program\n Note that the assigned message numbers are noncontiguous because the source contained a specific number. The mkcatdefs program always assigns the previous number plus 1 to a symbolic identi- fier. The generated <symb_msg.h> file is: #ifndef _H_SYMB_MSG #define _H_SYMB_MSG #include <limits.h> #in- clude <nl_types.h> #define MF_SYMB "symb.cat" /* The following was generated from symb.src. */ /* definitions for set MSFAC */ #define MSFAC 1 #define SYM_FORM 1 #define MSG_H 6 #endif Note that mkcatdefs also created a symbol MF_SYMB by adding MF_ to the catname using uppercase letters. The mkcatdefs program assumes that the name of the generated catalog should be cat- name.cat, and generates this symbol for your use with catopen. Because this file includes <limits.h> and <nl_types.h>, you do not need to include them in your application program. (nl_types defines special data types required by the message facility rou- tines.) SEE ALSO Commands: dspcat(1), dspmsg(1), gencat(1), runcat(1) Functions: catclose(3), catgets(3), catopen(3) mkcatdefs(1)