.\" Copyright (c) Bruno Haible .\" .\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or .\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of .\" the License, or (at your option) any later version. .\" .\" References consulted: .\" GNU glibc-2 source code and manual .\" GNU gettext source code and manual .\" LI18NUX 2000 Globalization Specification .\" .TH BIND_TEXTDOMAIN_CODESET 3 "May 2001" "GNU gettext 0.20.1.124-32cf" .SH NAME bind_textdomain_codeset \- set encoding of message translations .SH SYNOPSIS .nf .B #include .sp .BI "char * bind_textdomain_codeset (const char * " domainname , .BI " const char * " codeset ); .fi .SH DESCRIPTION The \fBbind_textdomain_codeset\fP function sets the output codeset for message catalogs for domain \fIdomainname\fP. .PP A message domain is a set of translatable \fImsgid\fP messages. Usually, every software package has its own message domain. .PP By default, the \fBgettext\fP family of functions returns translated messages in the locale's character encoding, which can be retrieved as \fBnl_langinfo(CODESET)\fP. The need for calling \fBbind_textdomain_codeset\fP arises for programs which store strings in a locale independent way (e.g. UTF-8) and want to avoid an extra character set conversion on the returned translated messages. .PP \fIdomainname\fP must be a non-empty string. .PP If \fIcodeset\fP is not NULL, it must be a valid encoding name which can be used for the \fBiconv_open\fP function. The \fBbind_textdomain_codeset\fP function sets the output codeset for message catalogs belonging to domain \fIdomainname\fP to \fIcodeset\fP. The function makes copies of the argument strings as needed. .PP If \fIcodeset\fP is NULL, the function returns the previously set codeset for domain \fIdomainname\fP. The default is NULL, denoting the locale's character encoding. .SH "RETURN VALUE" If successful, the \fBbind_textdomain_codeset\fP function returns the current codeset for domain \fIdomainname\fP, after possibly changing it. The resulting string is valid until the next \fBbind_textdomain_codeset\fP call for the same \fIdomainname\fP and must not be modified or freed. If a memory allocation failure occurs, it sets \fBerrno\fP to \fBENOMEM\fP and returns NULL. If no codeset has been set for domain \fIdomainname\fP, it returns NULL. .SH ERRORS The following error can occur, among others: .TP .B ENOMEM Not enough memory available. .SH BUGS The return type ought to be \fBconst char *\fP, but is \fBchar *\fP to avoid warnings in C code predating ANSI C. .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR gettext (3), .BR dgettext (3), .BR dcgettext (3), .BR ngettext (3), .BR dngettext (3), .BR dcngettext (3), .BR textdomain (3), .BR nl_langinfo (3), .BR iconv_open (3)