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 calling 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/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  impor-
       tant 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 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 predating ANSI C.

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



GNU gettext 0.18.1                                          May 2001                                           BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)