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/lib‐
       intl libraries.

       Message  catalogs will be expected at the pathnames dirname/locale/category/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 abso‐
       lute 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 bind‐
       textdomain call for the same domainname 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 warnings in C code pre‐
       dating ANSI C.

SEE ALSO
       gettext(3), dgettext(3), dcgettext(3), ngettext(3), dngettext(3),  dcngettext(3),  textdo‐
       main(3), realpath(3)



GNU gettext 0.19.3                           May 2001                           BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)